Hamas claims responsibility for dual car bombing in West Bank last week

By Emanuel Fabian 

Today, 5:51 pm

An Israeli soldier stands near the scene of a car bomb explosion in the West Bank settlement of Karmei Tzur, in front of a sign in which the Arabic has been blacked out by vandals, August 31, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The Hamas terror group claimed responsibility on Monday for twin car bombing in the southern West Bank days earlier, on the heels of a call from a top official in the terror group to resume suicide bombings.

In a statement, Hamas’s military wing took “full responsibility” for the attack, which consisted of a pair of coordinated bombings.

The two terrorists responsible — identified as Hebron residents Muhammad Marqa and Zahdi Afifa, both killed by troops at the scene — were members of the group, Hamas said.

In the first incident, a car exploded at a gas station near the Gush Etzion junction, after which troops shot the terrorist inside the vehicle.

In the second incident, which occurred about 20 minutes later, a terrorist breached the nearby Karmei Tzur settlement before being shot dead, after which the car he had been in exploded inside the community.

Two days after the car bombings, three Israeli police officers were killed in a shooting attack near the Palestinian city of Tarqumiyah in the southern West Bank.

The incidents came amid major ongoing counterterrorism operations by the Israel Defense Forces in several West Bank cities. On Saturday, a soldier was killed during a raid in the city of Jenin, and Sunday saw fighting between IDF troops and gunmen in Hebron.

The IDF operations were launched in the wake of an attempted suicide bombing in Tel Aviv in August, also claimed by Hamas.

Speaking in Istanbul on Wednesday, top Hamas official Khaled Mashaal called for a resumption of suicide bombings in the West Bank, urging  Palestinians to engage in “open conflict” with Israel.

Hamas championed suicide bombings for decades, carrying out such attacks throughout the 1990s and through the end of the Second Intifada in the early 2000s, but they have been rare in the years since.

Tensions in the West Bank have been high since the October 7 Hamas massacre, which saw terrorists from Gaza infiltrate Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251, starting the ongoing war.

Since October 7, troops have arrested some 5,000 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 2,000 affiliated with Hamas.

According to the Palestinian Authority health ministry, more than 670 West Bank Palestinians have been killed in that time. The IDF says the vast majority of them were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops or terrorists carrying out attacks.

During the same period, 29 people, including Israeli security personnel, have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another six members of the security forces were killed in clashes with terror operatives in the West Bank.