Israeli security and emergency responders work at the site of a bomb blast in Tel Aviv, Israel, Aug. 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Moti Milrod

Why did the IDF launch a major offensive into several cities in Judea and Samaria two nights ago?

Perhaps it is because senior members of the Palestinian Authority (PA) have been calling for an all-out intifada there, and terrorists from all Palestinian factions have been actively seeking to carry out attacks in Israeli cities.

The attempted suicide bombing in Tel Aviv last week was just the latest in a series of major attacks that failed at a late stage before their execution.

And PA officials have been at the forefront of the calls for systematic violence.

Director of PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs Qadura Fares: “The time has come to express our anger … I ask Almighty Allah to give us inspiration on the correct path and the correct choice, and that we will set out on an intifada against criminal Netanyahu and all his gangs.” [emphasis added]

[PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs, Facebook page, July 18, 2024]

The PA-led terror campaign from 2000-2005 that the PA calls an “intifada” left more than 1,100 Israelis murdered, and tens of thousands injured. Calling for “intifada” is calling for a terror war.

In addition, at a conference attended by senior PA officials, including Fares and Fatah Central Committee Deputy Secretary Sabri Saidam, the host made similar inflammatory remarks ahead of August 3, 2024, “the international day to support Gaza and the Palestinian prisoners”:

Conference host: “Allah willing, Aug. 3, [2024] will be a spark for the Palestinian people and this spark will continue consecutively until we will be liberated from the yoke of the occupation. It is not foreign to this people to lead an intifada like this …

The [first] Intifada spread out throughout the homeland. This is a great honor that is to be credited to our entire Palestinian people. In 2002 [sic., 2000] [then Prime Minister] Sharon entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque and then the [second] Intifada broke out and continued. It is not foreign to our people that an intifada like this will set out from Aug. 3.” [emphasis added]

[Official PA TV, July 30, 2024]

These calls for an “intifada” have been coupled with statements by other senior PA officials, such as Mahmoud Abbas’ advisor Mahmoud Al-Habbash, inciting to terrorism throughout Israel — what he calls a “jihad”:

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “Your best Jihad is ribat [i.e., religious conflict over land claimed to be Islamic], and your best ribat is Ashkelon. Where is Ashkelon? Ashkelon is a city in Palestine, and the land of Palestine is a land of ribat and jihad until Judgment Day.

His [Muhammad’s] dear followers came while carrying out Jihad for Allah to Palestine and Greater Syria, and they liberated it from the Byzantine occupation. Saladin liberated it from the Crusader occupation. And today it will be liberated, Allah willing. Palestine will return and be liberated, sooner or later.”

[PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations, Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Facebook page, Aug. 9, 2024]

Al-Habbash went a step further, calling for state-sponsored violence against Israel by all Islamic states:

Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “All the Islamic states — large and small, far and near — need to adopt the same position, the same effort to protect Jerusalem, from Judaization and the occupation’s plots to uproot Jerusalem from the Islamic body. This is a great responsibility that President [Abbas] wanted to place before the Arabs and Muslims: O Muslims, you must join hands with your Palestinian brothers to take back Jerusalem with all the energy and power we have and by all means and ways.”

[Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Facebook page, Aug. 16, 2024]

The call by Abbas’ advisor that Islamic should “take back Jerusalem” using “all means and ways” — and citing examples of violence and terror — is an explicit call for those states to join the current war against Israel. Israel is currently fighting terror from the Gaza Strip, Judea and Samaria, Lebanon, Iran, and Yemen, while Turkey and Algeria have threatened to join the fighting. Al-Habbash’s call for additional Muslim states to join the war at this time must not be interpreted as mere rhetoric. It’s a real threat.

Itamar Marcus is Palestinian Media Watch (PMW)’s Founder and Director. Ephraim D. Tepler is a contributor to Palestinian Media Watch. A version of this article originally appeared at PMW.