The charred remains of the Israeli bus attacked by Palestinian terrorists in the 1978 Coastal Road massacre. Fatah glorified the attack recently on its Facebook page. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

JNS.org – The official Facebook page of the Palestinian Fatah political party—which is led by Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas—on March 10 celebrated the anniversary of a terrorist attack that killed 37 Israelis, Palestinian Media Watch reported.

In the Coastal Road massacre of 1978, Fatah terrorists from Lebanon hijacked an Israeli bus. When confronted by Israeli soldiers, the terrorists murdered 37 passengers, including 12 children. Seventy additional passengers were wounded.

On Tuesday, Fatah’s Facebook page both glorified and exaggerated that attack, more than doubling the actual number of deaths.

“A huge self-sacrificing operation in Herzliya, Tel Aviv. 80 Israelis killed and over 100 wounded,” Fatah posted.

Female terrorist Dalal Mughrabi, the orchestrator of the Coastal Road massacre, has been frequently glorified by Fatah and the PA, according to Palestinian Media Watch. In 2010, the PA named a square in Ramallah after Mughrabi. The same square was chosen this year by Fatah for the hosting of a public event to mark the 1978 attack.

“We will mark the anniversary of the heroic coastal operation (i.e., the Coastal Road massacre), which was led by Martyr (Shahida) Dalal Mughrabi, and the deaths as Martyrs of Dalal and her heroic friends, at 3:30 p.m. across from Martyr Dalal Mughrabi Square in Ramallah,” Fatah said in its Facebook post on Tuesday.

At the same time, an Israeli defense official said this week that forces ordered by the PA’s Abbas have arrested more than 100 members of the Hamas terrorist group in the West Bank. This apparent Palestinian crackdown on terrorism comes despite the Palestine Liberation Organization’s recent adoption of a resolution calling for an end to security cooperation with Israel.