The terrorist organization Hamas designated Friday, Oct. 13, as a day of “general mobilization” to support “jihad-waging Gaza” in Israel and around the world. The Israeli government warned that this call would prompt attacks on Israelis and Jews, and violence indeed erupted Friday.
“A call to our Palestinian people, the masses of the Arab and Islamic world, and free people worldwide,” the Wednesday statement reads, as translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute. “We declare next Friday, ‘The Friday of the Al-Aqsa Flood,’ as a day of general mobilization in our Arab and Islamic world and among the free people of the world.”
The statement refers to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem near the Western Wall of the Second Jewish Temple, a site of regular tension between Jews and Muslims. The statement also calls upon “our rebellious youth” to “shake the ground beneath the feet of the Zionist invaders and their settler gangs” in Israel.” It urges those outside Israel to “mobilize in solidarity with our Palestinian people.” (Read the full statement here.)
Robert Greenway, director of the Center for National Defense at The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Signal that the statement would result in bloodshed. (The Daily Signal is Heritage’s news outlet.)
“It is an unambiguous global call to arms,” Greenway said. “It will be heeded. There will be blood.”
Israel’s National Security Council and Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a joint statement Thursday that warns of attacks on Israelis and Jews.
“The Hamas leadership has called on all of its supporters around the world to hold a ‘Day of Rage’ tomorrow (Friday, 13 October 2023) and attack Israelis and Jews,” the Israeli statement reads. “It is reasonable to assume that there will be protest events in various countries that are liable to turn violent.”
The statement urges Israelis abroad to “be alert, keep away from the demonstrations and protests and—if necessary—check with local security forces regarding possible protests and disturbances in the area.”
Events so far seem to bear these warnings out, to some degree.
West Bank Attack
Israeli border officers shot and killed four Palestinians who set off explosives in an apparent attempt to open the West Bank security barrier Friday, The Times of Israel reported.
The Israel Defense Force said troops have arrested 220 suspected terrorist Palestinians across the West Bank, including 130 affiliated with Hamas, since the Hamas terror attacks in Israel last Saturday.
The Palestinian Authority’s health ministry reported that Israeli forces and settlers had killed at least 44 West Bank Palestinians since then.
In most of Israel, however, the “Day of Rage” did not seem to mobilize Palestinians.
“There was no Day of Rage,” former IDF Brig. Gen. Amir Avivi, who currently serves as founder and chairman of Israel’s Defense and Security Forum, told The Daily Signal in a phone interview Friday.
“It’s nothing like what we saw two and a half years ago when Hamas managed to mobilize Israeli Arabs,” Avivi explained. “Israeli Arabs are in a complete state of shock of this horrendous unbelievable cruelty and unimaginable atrocities that we saw.”
He further noted that Israeli forces are too strong for Palestinians to think about mobilizing.
“Israel drafted the whole army,” the former general said. “We are very, very strong in our borders in the north and also in Judea and Samaria, it’s very determined, and it’s not so easy to start doing things.”
“People are careful, they’re not really answering to Hamas’ call,” he concluded.
‘Allahu Akbar’ Stabbing in France
A 20-year-old Chechen migrant on France’s extremist watchlist allegedly stabbed a teacher to death and wounded two others in a suspected terror attack Friday morning.
Sliman Hamzi, a police officer who arrived on scene in the city of Arras, about 115 miles north of Paris, told the Associated Press he heard the assailant say “Allahu Akbar.”
Hamzi also identified the attacker as a former student at the Gambetta-Carnot School, where the attack took place. Anti-terror prosecutors are leading the investigation.
In October 2020, a radicalized Chechen beheaded another teacher near a Paris-area school.
Stabbing in China
Beijing police arrested a 53-year-old suspect who allegedly stabbed a family member of an Israeli diplomat. The Israeli victim, 50, reportedly works at the Israeli Embassy in Beijing.
“The employee was transferred to hospital and he is in stable condition,” an Israeli government statement said, the Associated Press reported.
The U.S. Mission in China emphasized that the attacker’s motive remains unknown.
Spreading Protests
Supporters of Palestine gathered in large crowds in the Middle East and other parts of the world.
Thousands of Iraqis gathered at Tahrir Square in Baghdad to protest Israel.
Students at the University of California, Los Angeles, also protested for Palestine, chanting: “Intifada! Intifada!”
The word means “rebellion” or “uprising,” and in the Israel-Palestinian conflict it refers to two Palestinian uprisings, in 1987-1993 and in 2000-2005.
The imam at the Grand Mosque of the Kaaba in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest site in Islam, reportedly prayed for the “liberation” of the Al-Aqsa mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem.
“Oh Allah, liberate Al-Aqsa mosque and support our brothers in Palestine and be a helper, uplifter, and supporter for them,” the imam said, according to a translation by Muslim reformer Maajid Nawaz.
According to Reuters footage, Muslims prayed Friday outside Al-Aqsa Mosque, amid heightened Israeli security.
The Hamas Attack
Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on the last day of the Jewish festival of Sukkot, as well as the Sabbath day of rest and the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War. The terrorists slaughtered over 1,200 Israelis, including about 250 at a music festival, and kidnapped more than 120, authorities said.
The U.S. State Department confirmed Wednesday that 22 Americans had died in the attack.
Hamas terrorists shot civilians at bus stops, on roads, and in their cars, photos show, according to Israeli experts who spoke to the Times of Israel. Videos reportedly show Israeli civilians, including women and children, being abducted and taken to Gaza. At least two videos raised concerns of sexual assault or rape.
An Israel Defense Forces commander told journalists that soldiers found beheaded babies in the carnage left by Hamas terrorists.
This article will be updated with further developments.
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