Supporters celebrate Fatah’s 55th anniversary in Gaza City on January 1, 2020. Photo: Fatah. http://fatehorg.ps/?p=16727

On the morning of Oct. 25, 2022, Israeli security forces carried out an anti-terror mission against the “Lion’s Den” terror cell, which had carried out a number of terror attacks. The goal of the mission was to neutralize one of its senior members Wadi’ Al-Houh and disrupt the cell’s terror activities. During the mission, Al-Houh and other members of the cell were killed. The apartment they were killed in also served as a bomb-making laboratory.

Responding to the killing of the terrorists, and the exposure of the bomb-making factory, Fatah Deputy Chairman Mahmoud Al-Aloul admitted that the Palestinian Authority (PA) Security Forces were fighting together with terrorists against Israel (in his words, “the occupation”).

He added that Israeli soldiers were wounded “as a result of the brave position of the Palestinian Security Forces,” and that all Palestinians are “one unit,” including the PA Security Forces and Fatah’s terror faction:

Fatah Deputy Chairman Mahmoud Al-Aloul: “A confrontation took place between Israeli special forces and the Palestinian [PA] Security Forces. There are a number of wounded on our side from among the Palestinian Security [Forces] members who fought with the occupation. There are also wounded from among the occupation soldiers as a result of the brave position of the Palestinian Security Forces in this affair. We speak about all the Palestinians. All the Palestinians are one unit. The Security Forces members, the Tanzim [i.e., Fatah terror faction], the public, and everyone — one unit in dealing with this occupation.”

[Facebook page of the Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, Oct. 25, 2022]

Palestinian Media Watch has exposed many recent admissions that the PA Security Forces are taking an active role in terror — and that Fatah, the party of PA leader Mahmoud Abbas, has returned to terror.

Al-Aloul’s statement is of considerable significance for at least two reasons.

Firstly, Al-Aloul is the deputy head of Fatah. He was appointed by Abbas himself, who created the new position specifically for Al-Aloul. Accordingly, this is the first statement of someone in such a senior Fatah position, admitting that the PA Security Forces are fighting against Israeli soldiers while simultaneously protecting wanted, armed terrorists held up in a bomb-making laboratory.

Secondly, when Al-Aloul says that the PA Security Forces and Fatah’s terror faction The Tanzim “are one unit,” he is essentially admitting that there is no separation between the US and EU-trained and funded PA Security Forces, who are meant to be combating terror and arresting terrorists, and the Palestinian terrorists themselves.

Lt. Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch, Adv. is the Head of Legal Strategies for Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article first appeared.