Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades members walking in the West Bank with masks and weapons. Photo: Elder of Ziyon.

JNS.org – The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a “militia” of Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction, claimed responsibility on Sunday for Friday’s double car bombings in the Gush Etzion region of the West Bank.

In an announcement posted on Telegram, Fatah’s “military” wing hailed the terrorists who carried out the “heroic Hebron operation,” naming them as Zahdi Nidal Abu Afifa and Muhammad Ihsan Yaqin Marqa.

The statement claimed that Friday’s car bombings were a response to “Zionist massacres in the Gaza Strip, the crimes of the occupation in the occupied West Bank and violations against the blessed Al-Aqsa mosque.

“The fighters of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades continue their heroic operations against the forces of the Zionist enemy within the Battle of Al-Aqsa Flood,” it said, referring to the Swords of Iron War initiated by Hamas on Oct. 7.

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On Saturday, the Hamas terrorist group hailed the previous day’s “double heroic operation” after the car bombers wounded three Israelis. While stopping short of taking responsibility, it called it “a clear message that the resistance will be prolonged and sustained so long as the brutal occupation’s aggression and targeting of our people and land continue.”

In the first attack, a bomb was detonated at a gas station near the Gush Etzion Junction, prompting the IDF to dispatch soldiers to the scene. The terrorist opened fire on the troops, who killed him. A soldier was moderately wounded and an officer was lightly hurt in the exchange.

Shortly thereafter, a terrorist rammed his car through the gate to the nearby town of Karmei Tzur. A security guard drove after the terrorist and crashed into his vehicle, before getting out and shooting and killing him. The terrorist’s car exploded, and the guard was lightly injured in the attack.

On Saturday, security forces raided an explosive manufacturing factory in Hebron that produced the improvised bombs used in Friday’s attacks, the IDF and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) said in a joint statement on Sunday.

The Israel Defense Forces believes that the Fatah terrorists who carried out the bombings, both from Hebron, coordinated their attacks.

Many members of Israel’s security brass support the Palestinian Authority’s control over parts of the West Bank as a “moderating force,” as opposed to Hamas and other Iran-backed terrorist groups.

Members of Ramallah’s “security forces” have a long history of carrying out terrorist attacks against IDF soldiers and Israeli civilians. Last year, Fatah boasted that most of its “martyrs” served in the Palestinian Authority Security Forces.

On Sunday, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to order a broad counterterror campaign throughout the West Bank, hours after Palestinian terrorists murdered three police officers in a drive-by shooting near Hebron.

“Gaza, Lebanon, and Judea and Samaria are part of the same Iranian choke ring that seeks to destroy the State of Israel,” Smotrich said. “We are proving in Gaza that there is a military solution to terrorism. We must prove this here in Judea and Samaria and in Lebanon against Hezbollah.”

In the six months of 2024, the West Bank saw more than 500 Arab terrorist attacks each month on average, according to figures Rescuers Without Borders (Hatzalah the West Bank) published on Aug. 1.

During that time, first responders recorded 3,272 acts of terrorism in the region, including 1,868 cases of rock-throwing, 456 attacks with Molotov cocktails, 299 explosive charges and 109 shootings.

Terrorists have killed 14 people and wounded more than 155 others in the West Bank since the start of the year, the group said.