A view of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Photo: Berthold Werner.

JNS.org – The Al-Aqsa Martys Brigade, a terror group loosely affiliated with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party, has given the “green light” for terror attacks on Israel beginning on Friday.

According to a statement reported by Lebanese terror group Hezbollah’s Al-Manar news outlet, the Palestinian terror group referred to the recent visit by Jewish worshipers to the Temple Mount over Rosh Hashanah, which sparked Muslim rioting, as justification for the attacks.

“We are all witnessing the invasion by herds of settlers to the compound (Temple Mount) and [they] harm the [Muslim] worshippers without any intervention from the international community,” the statement said.

The Temple Mount complex is controlled by the Jordanian-affiliated Waqf (charitable trust), which controls the Muslim Holy sites of the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque. Jewish visitors to the holy site are only permitted on certain hours and are forbidden to pray.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade is a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization. According to the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, the Palestinian terror group comprises “an unknown number of small cells of Fatah-affiliated activists that emerged at the outset of the second Palestinian uprising (in 2000).”

Today, the terror group operates primarily in the Gaza Strip, but plans terror attacks inside of Israel and in the West Bank. It was the first terror group responsible for a female suicide bombing inside of Israel, in 2002.