Gunmen from Saraya al-Quds, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad terrorist group, participate in a protest in the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, in celebration of a terror attack inside a cafe in Israel where three Israelis were killed and others were seriously and moderately wounded. (Photo by Yousef Masoud / SOPA Images/Sipa USA)

Just hours after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned Thursday night’s terrorist attack in Tel Aviv that killed three Israelis and wounded seven more, a senior official from his own Fatah faction claimed that the gunman, 29-year-old Ra’ed Hazem, was a member of the Fatah-affiliated Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade (AMB) terror organization.

Speaking on Friday morning outside Hazem’s residence in the West Bank city of Jenin, Atta Abu Rumailah — the secretary-general of Fatah in Jenin — described the slain terrorist as a “senior member” of the AMB, which has engaged in hundreds of deadly attacks against Israelis since its foundation in 2002. Hazem’s father also spoke, lauding his sons’ actions and promising that “victory will come soon, in the coming days you will see the change.”

The atrocity in Tel Aviv was the second of the four terror attacks in Israel during the last several weeks to have been associated with the AMB. Diaa Hamarsheh — a 27-year-old from the village of Yabad near Jenin who carried out a gun attack in Bnei Brak on March 30, killing five people — was also reportedly linked to the AMB, which praised his shooting spree as “a natural response to the crimes of the occupation.”

In the wake of Thursday’s attack on a popular bar located on Dizengoff Street, in the heart of Tel Aviv, Abbas declared that the “killing of Palestinian and Israeli civilians only leads to a further deterioration of the situation, as we are all striving for stability, especially during the holy month of Ramadan and the upcoming Christian and Jewish holidays.”

Other Fatah officials were less nuanced. Munir al-Jaghoub, who heads Fatah’s information department, stated “the continued occupation of the lands of the State of Palestine” and the “double standards” supposedly demonstrated by the rest of the world towards the Palestinians had provoked the attack.

“The only solution is to end the occupation of the Palestinian territories and realize the Palestinian state on the ground,” Jaghoub said.

A statement from Fatah’s branch in Jenin pulled no punches in its response to the Tel Aviv attack. “Fatah in Jenin informs our mighty Palestinian people and all the freedom-lovers in the world of the [heavenly] nuptials of the living martyr who carried out the heroic operation in occupied Tel Aviv and Jaffa, the fidai [self-sacrificing fighter] who fasted [on Ramadan]… the hero and leader Ra’ad Fathi Hazem, [an activist in] the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and in Fatah–Jenin,” the statement, translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), announced.

The same statement went on to lionize Hazem  as “Fatah’s thunder in the skies of Palestine” who had “rocked the fragile Zionist entity to its core.”

Meanwhile, Palestinian Islamist factions were equally ebullient following news of the shooting, with Hamas reviving the conspiracy theory that Israel intends to take over the Temple Mount, where the Al Aqsa mosque stands.

“The continuing terrorism of the occupation and its crimes attempts to Judaize Jerusalem al Quds and to perform sacrifices in the Al-Aqsa Mosque to build its so-called ‘Temple’ during what they call ‘Passover’ — against it stands blood and bullets,” Hamas said in a statement.

Yousef al-Hasayneh, a leading member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), meanwhile said that the “heroic operation deep in Tel Aviv confirms how frail [Israel] is, how susceptible it is to being broken.”

Hazem was shot dead by Israeli security forces on Friday morning following a frantic eight-hour manhunt. In a statement on Friday morning, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said that he commended “the Israeli Security Service (ISA), the Israel Police and the Israel National Counter-Terrorism Unit for their determined and quick action.”

Said Bennett: “If they hadn’t found him and killed him now, the incident could have dragged on for days.”

Contrary to the AMB’s claim that Hazem was one of its operatives, Bennett said that the terrorist “did not belong to any organization, but he had those who helped him, in both organization and obtaining weaponry.”

Joe Truzman, a researcher on Palestinian affairs at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) think tank, also cautioned against the AMB’s claims concerning Hazem.

“There are some indications beginning to emerge of Hazem’s affiliation with militant groups in Jenin. However, I’ve yet to see definitive evidence of membership in an established militant organization,” Truzman said on Twitter.

“Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades might be using the attention the attack has generated to boost its image,” Truzman said.