Hamas Criticizes PA for Killing PIJ Terrorist in Tulkarem

By Yoni Weiss

In a rare intra-Palestinian clash, Palestinian security officers fatally shot a Palestinian Islamic Jihad gunman in Tulkarem on Thursday. The circumstances of the incident were disputed, with the terrorist faction describing it as an Israeli-style “assassination.”

According to PA security services spokesperson Talak Dweikat, a patrol sent to Tulkarem overnight encountered gunfire and responded by shooting back, resulting in the death of the gunman. He succumbed to his injuries in the hospital.

A local armed group, the Tulkarm and Nour Shams Camp Brigades, claimed the deceased, Ahmed Abu al-Foul, as its member affiliated with the PIJ. The brigades asserted that al-Foul was “treacherously targeted in his car” without provocation, likening the incident to an Israeli special forces assassination.

Hamas condemned “the attacks by the PA’s security forces on our people and our resistance fighters.”

While exchanges of gunfire between Palestinian security forces and terrorists have occurred sporadically over the past year, fatalities are uncommon.