Hamas Promises Revenge for Rioter Deaths

Hamas and Islamic Jihad on Saturday issued a threat to Israel, promising to avenge the deaths of four rioters who were shot Friday afternoon. “The allied forces will avenge the war crimes of the Israelis against four non-violent protesters, and the injuries of dozens of others.”

The four were shot during violent riots which continued along the Gaza border fence Friday afternoon. Gaza rioters threw rocks and firebombs at Israeli soldiers, who used anti-riot measures to keep rioters away from the border fence. Some 8,000 rioters were at the fence Friday, the 39th week in a row that the border riots took place. Gaza sources said that Israeli soldiers shot and killed two teen rioters, while two others were injured and later died of their wounds. Forty rioters were injured. The terror groups said that they were “conferring on an appropriate response and we will announce our decision tomorrow.”

In response, Israeli sources on Motzoei Shabbos told Channel 20 that if the terror groups once again began shooting missiles at Israel, the IDF’s response would be “harsh and powerful. We will not allow a repeat of the recent events” in which Gaza terrorists shot nearly 500 missiles at Israel withing several days. “The response will not be ‘measured’ this time, but will be a harsh strike at Hamas.”

Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas slammed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for continuing to transfer Qatari funds to Hamas. Netanyahu “keeps giving money to Hamas, and they use it to carry out terror attacks” in PA-controlled areas of Yehudah and Shomron, which Abbas nominally controls. With that, he added, “we will not allow Hamas to be added to the list of terror organizations, despite the differences between us,” referring to the recent vote at the U.N. to classify Hamas as a terror group.

On Motzoei Shabbos, IDF forces arrested an Arab near Mevo Dotan in northern Shomron who was caught throwing rocks at Israeli vehicles. The Arab was found to be carrying a knife as well. He was taken for questioning by security forces.