The terrorist killed overnight Thursday by Israeli forces in the Jenin area was Fathi Hazem, father of the gunman who carried out the deadly 2022 attack at a bar on Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv that killed Tomer Morad, Eytam Magini, and Barak Lufan. Hazem previously served as commander of the ‘Palestinian’ Authority’s army in Shechem [Nablus] with the rank of brigadier general. After his son carried out the attack, he delivered an incitement speech and became a popular figure among West Bank Arabs.
1+Hazem later deserted his official position in the ‘Palestinian’ Authority and moved to open terror activity without uniform. He worked to unite all terror factions in the area and led the establishment of the “Jenin Battalion,” an organization that later replicated itself in other cities across Judea and Samaria and grew to monstrous proportions. Absurdly, for about five years Hazem enjoyed de facto immunity and was not designated as wanted. After the body of young Tiran Fero was kidnapped to Jenin, the security establishment preferred to avoid military action and reached negotiations that resulted in a deal: Fero’s body was returned, and the founder of the Jenin Battalion received immunity that allowed him to even be hospitalized without fear.
1+Under those understandings and the immunity he enjoyed, Hazem was transferred from the hospital in Jenin to a hospital in Ramallah by ‘Palestinian’ Authority army commander Nidal Abu Dukhan, traveling in the vehicle of Hussein al-Sheikh. Though he could have been easily arrested then, the system refrained from capturing him. Last night the arch-terrorist tried to stab soldiers operating in his village in northern Samaria. The soldiers who encountered the immediate danger returned accurate fire, killed the terrorist, and thus brought an end to the immunity affair and his ongoing terror activity.