The monthly incitement report of the Ministry of Strategic Affairs revealed a rise in calls by Hamas to carry out attacks against Israeli citizens living in Judea and Samaria - calls that became a murderous reality last week. The report said that Hamas has recently stepped up its efforts to encourage terrorist activities, along with calls for the copying of the model of the Gaza 'return march' riots in Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem. Hamas also praises terrorists who carry out terrorist attacks, such as Ashraf Na'alwa, the terrorist who carried out the murderous attack on Barkan, who was killed by IDF forces and became, before his death, a "national hero" to be emulated according to Hamas. The Hamas campaign has received support from within Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization. Fatah Central Committee member Abbas Zaki told the press this month that "Hamas is not a terrorist organization. It is fighting for a just cause like any other liberation movement. "It is the right of every people under occupation to act in all ways of resistance, including armed resistance. We and Hamas are in the same boat in the struggle against Israel, and there must be a price for occupation, through popular resistance, boycotts and through international tribunals." In its incitement cartoons, Hamas wrote: "The heroes of the West Bank are carrying out an intifada again," and "an Israeli casualty every month in the West Bank, exhaustion of the occupation continues, resistance pays off." The cartoons also featured pictures of masked terrorists alongside bloodstains that symbolize the blood of Jews. In light of the wave of terror in Judea and Samaria, the Palestinian Authority accused Israel of killing civilians when the IDF located and killed several of the terrorists who carried out the attacks, and the Fatah movement praised the terrorists on social media. Senior PA officials, including Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who published a statement in support of terrorists imprisoned in Israel, and senior officials including PLO Executive Committee Secretary Saeb Erekat and Palestinian Education Minister Tzabari Zadim participated in a number of events in honor of terrorists released from Israeli prisons. Last month, Abbas met in his office in Ramallah with the mother and brother of the Arab-Israeli prisoner and member of the Fatah Central Committee, Karim Yunis, who was involved in the kidnapping and murder of the late Avraham Bromberg in 1980 and sentenced to life imprisonment. "The issue of prisoners is at the top of the Palestinian leadership's agenda, which invests every possible effort, together with the institutions and the international community, to bring about their release from Israeli jails," Abbas told the family of the prisoner. The family of the terrorist, for their part, thanked Abbas for the efforts and interest he regularly reveals in "the issue of their son in particular, and of his brothers in captivity in general." The report describes the events in honor of the release of two terrorists who had been imprisoned in Israel for 16 years for their involvement in carrying out attacks, events that included praises on PA television, and a visit to a kindergarten together with PA Education Minister Tzabari Tziddam, a Hamas-linked official. In another event, a ceremony was held in his office to honor three students who were released prisoners, including Farah and al-Za'tari, with senior officials from the PA education system. "The tribute event emphasizes our support for the prisoners' students and their loyalty to their struggle, as well as their role in maintaining the educational framework despite the suffering in captivity. We will continue to monitor the issue of the children and the students and protect their rights."
