Posted on 02/07/16
| News Source: Times of Israel
The Palestinian terror group Hamas called Sunday on activists to carry out suicide bombing attacks against Israelis, specifically on buses, in a manner reminiscent of the devastating attacks of the 2000-2005 Second Intifada.
In a music video posted online, Hamas, the de-facto ruler of the Gaza Strip, praised terrorists who target civilians in front of a burning green-and-white Egged bus, Israel’s main public transportation provider.
“To die as a martyr for Al-Aqsa [Mosque] gives the explosive device more and more force,” the song posted by the official Hamas channel Al-Aqsa TV said.
“The intifada is not an intifada if the bus roof doesn’t fly off.”
The song praised terrorists who perpetrate attacks, claiming they served to “humble” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The six-minute clip also follows a Hamas activist preparing for a suicide attack inside Israel. The terrorist boards a bus along with several other civilians, including two men (poorly) dressed up as Orthodox Jews.
In recent months, Hamas officials have openly called for a resurgence of suicide bombings against Israelis.
In December, Israel uncovered a Hamas cell operating in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Abu Dis, which had been planning to carry out suicide attacks. The Shin Bet security service said the cell was controlled by the Hamas leadership in the Gaza Strip.
Later that month — in a joint operation with the Israel Defense Forces and the Israel Police — the Shin Bet arrested over two dozen Hamas operatives, the majority of them students from al-Quds University in Abu Dis, whom they suspect were preparing to attack Israeli targets, the service said at the time.
Palestinian attacks have killed some 30 people since October 2015. In the same period, some 150 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli security forces, most while carrying out attacks but others during clashes and demonstrations.
Suicide bombings killed hundreds of Israelis in the mid-1990s and during the Second Intifada at the start of the millennium, and led to a massive Israeli military operation in the West Bank.
Avi Issacharoff contributed to this report.