Abbas’ Fatah Faction Hails Anniversary of ‘Most Famous’ Terror Attack

JERUSALEM – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party posted a video marking the anniversary of a lethal terror attack which saw 10 Israelis murdered by a sniper in 2002.

The footage, which was posted to Fatah’s Bethlehem branch Facebook page, uses computer-generated imagery to reenact the attack carried out by Palestinian terrorist Thaer Hammad. The narrator boasts that the attack took just 20 minutes and is one of “the most famous operations” of the Second Intifada, according to a translation of the video by Israeli monitoring group, Palestinian Media Watch (PMW).

Hammad shot and killed three Israeli civilians and seven soldiers one by one with his sniper rifle from a hilltop in Wadi Al-Haramiya between Ramallah and Nablus on March 3, 2002.

Hammad is presented as a hero, and a picture of him holding his rifle jauntily over his shoulder recalls images from Hollywood action movies.

The one who carried it out:

Thaer Kayed Hammad, from Silwad near Ramallah, born in 1980.

Target: The Israeli army checkpoint in Wadi Al-Haramiya.

Weapon used: A World War II M-1 rifle.

At 04:30, Thaer set out in the direction of the checkpoint.

At 06:00, he fired the first bullet.

There were 6 soldiers at the checkpoint, and he killed them.

He hit them one after the other.

Thaer killed another 5 at the checkpoint, so the number rose to 11 (sic., he murdered 10 – three civilians and seven soldiers).

After reaping the soldiers and settlers, his rifle blew up.

He fired just 24-26 bullets, and quietly left the place.

The operation lasted 20 minutes.

Thaer was arrested 20 months after he carried out the operation.

Thaer is serving 11 life sentences.

The Wadi Al-Haramiya operation is one of the most famous operations carried out by the Palestinian resistance in the second Intifada.