Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
As the ravaging Israel-Hamas war completed one month, reports are emerging that the convoy of the Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas was attacked.
The incident took place on Tuesday when a convoy of cars carrying the Palestinian leader was fired upon by automotive weapons. According to Turkiye News, one of Abbas’ bodyguards was fatally wounded in the incident. The video of the incident started circulating online with many calling it an assassination attempt.
The attack took place days after a Palestinian militant group operating in West Bank named “Sons of Abu Jandal,” had given Abbas 24 hours to take action against Israel amid the ongoing Israeli Hamas war. Hours after the incident, the group claimed responsibility for the attack. “Oh our heroic people, oh sons of resilience and sacrifice,” is how a new Palestinian group in the West Bank began its ‘statement number one’, issued on Sunday, November 5.
“There is no time for many words at the time of (Israeli) occupation massacres in the Gaza Strip. There is no time for many words at the time of spilled blood in Gaza. There is no time for many words at the time that our children and our women in Gaza are being killed. There is no time for many words as our youth are being killed in the West Bank,” the statement reads. The group used the name “Brother Abu Mazen” to refer to the Palestinian President. “Brother Abu Mazen has 24 hours to produce a clear position, announcing full confrontation with the occupation, using all means, and to denounce statements made by the criminal (Antony) Blinken. Then, he has no authority over us, and no (PA security) branch (will follow orders and receive instructions),” the statement further reads.
Who is Abu Jandal?
According to the Palestine Chronicle, the group calls itself Sons of Abu Jandal, in honour of Yousef Ahmed Raihan, a PA officer who led the fight in defence of the Jenin refugee camp in April 2002. The clashes of Jenin were fought under Jandal’s leadership alongside Mahmoud Tawalbeh. In the Sunday statement, the group claimed that it has remained “silent” against the atrocities of the “occupiers”. “We have remained patient with the crimes of the occupation. We have remained patient with our own silence and helplessness… With taking (official) orders while we are torn every day and every minute by images of mutilated children and women (in Gaza),” the statement concluded. According to Palestine Chronicle, the group identified itself as “scores of individuals from Palestinian security branches”. Lastly, the statement also pledged to announce all the names of those members who are participating in the initiative.
