The new icon of Palestinian terrorism

Fathi Hazem, the father of the terrorist who carried out the shooting attack on Dizingoff Street in Tel Aviv has become the new icon of Palestinian terrorism against Israel. He refuses to hand himself over to the PA or to Israel and security officials estimate that it is only a matter of time before he is arrested or killed.

Every few years the Palestinians find a new icon to mark their struggle against Israel in the media, a few years ago it was the young woman Ehad al-Tamimi from the village of Nabi Saleh in the Ramallah area, who spread videos on social media in which she is seen hitting IDF soldiers, and became a media celebrity all over the world.

In March In 2018, she was convicted in a military court of assaulting an IDF officer, inciting and disrupting the activities of the IDF forces and was sentenced to eight months in prison.


Since her release from prison, she has gradually disappeared from the Palestinian media scene.


Now the Palestinians have found a new media star, Fathi Hazem, a resident of the Jenin refugee camp. He is the one who now represents the new symbol of the Palestinians in the armed struggle against Israel.


Fathi Hazem’s picture and his statements against Israel are circulated in all Palestinian media and social networks, and he was given the nickname “Sheikh of the wanted Palestinians”.


Fathi Hazem was a senior member of the PA’s security apparatus at the rank of Brigadier General is the father of the terrorist Raed Hazem who carried out the bloody attack on Dizingoff Street in Tel Aviv in April of this year, in which 3 Israelis were murdered and 6 others were injured.


The terrorist was located the day after the attack while hiding in a mosque in Jaffa and was killed by the Shin Bet.


Abdel Rahman, the second son of Fathi Hazem, became a wanted terrorist following the attack carried out by his brother in Tel Aviv and began to carry out shooting attacks against IDF forces in the Jenin area.


A few days ago an IDF force entered the Jenin refugee camp to arrest him, he detonated a large explosive device at the soldiers who came to arrest him and was killed in the exchange of fire along with 3 other terrorists.


The father, Fathi Hazem, also became wanted by the IDF following the attack carried out by his son Raed in Tel Aviv, he began to hang out with armed terrorists and rejected the requests of senior PA officials to surrender himself to them so that he would not be killed by Israel.


From time to time he comes out of his hiding place and delivers harsh inflammatory speeches to the residents of Jenin against Israel and calls on the residents of the West Bank to adopt the “path of resistance” against the IDF soldiers and the settlers.


In the last speech he gave after his son Abdel Rahman was killed by IDF forces, he called on the PA security personnel to join the “resistance forces” with their weapons.


“I urge you to align yourself with the path of Yasser Arafat and the path of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, you must side with the resistance, the truth and the homeland, our fighters are not criminals”, he stated.
All the Palestinian terrorist organizations have embraced Fathi Hazem as their new resistance symbol .

Huge pictures of him with quotes from his speeches were hung in the center of Gaza City.


Fathi Hazem refuses to hand himself over to Israel and declares that he is not afraid of arrest or death, security officials in Israel confirm that he is wanted for aiding the wanted terrorists and inciting against Israel.


A senior security official says that “it is only a matter of time until he is arrested or killed”.

Yoni Ben Menachem Senior Middle East Analyst

About Yoni Ben Menachem

Yoni Ben Menachem is a Middle East senior analyst ,a journalist and
the former CEO of the Israel Broadcasting Authority(IBA). He has
decades of experience in written and video journalism. Ben
Menachem’s path in the media world began as a producer for
Japanese television in the Middle East. After that, he held many key
positions in the media The Israeli: CEO of the Israel Broadcasting
Authority, director of “Kol Israel” Radio, reporter on West Bank and
Gaza Strip affairs, political reporter and commentator, commentator
on Middle East affairs and editor-in-chief and presenter of the
program “Middle East Magazine”. 

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