On Saturday, the IDF killed Hamza Abu al-Haija, whom it described as aticking time bomb, who was being directed to carry out a mass terror attack against Israelis in Judea and Samaria. Abu al-Haija was the son of Sheikh Jamal Abu al-Haija, the Hamas Sheikh in Jenin, who has been held in an Israeli jail since Operation Defensive for 12 years. Jamal was sentenced to nine life sentences for his role in sending a suicide attacker to the Meron junction in August 2002 to carry out an attack that killed nine Israelis. The IDF came to arrest the son, Hamza, but Hamza came out firing from his hiding place and was killed. Haaretz's Gideon Levy turns Abu al-Haija into a martyr.
Hamzi didn’t act like a wanted man. He was spending the day in his family home, acting normally; he wasn’t armed nor did he betray any signs of the nervousness typical of men on the run that I’ve met over the years. Wearing sweats, he was playing with his little niece and joined the conversation we were having with his mother. He smiled a lot and said he was not afraid.
He told us that on the evening of December 18 soldiers had come to his home to arrest him while he was celebrating the birth of a nephew with friends. They heard suspicious noises from the street and at first thought it was a force from the Palestinian Authority, which has also been trying to arrest Hamas men in the camp. Only when he and his three friends ran to the roof and looked down did they realize it was the Israel Defense Forces.
Hamzi managed to escape by fleeing over the roofs and through the alleys, but his friend, Nafaa Saidi, was shot and killed by the soldiers. In the three ensuing months, no one tried to arrest him and Hamzi continued with his routine; during the day he would stay in his family’s home, but at night he would sleep elsewhere.Of course, he didn't act like a wanted man. He just happened to be on the run all the time. But don't let that stop Levy from trying to humanize him.
I first met Hamzi in June 2003. He was 11, with both parents and his oldest brother in jail, and the five remaining children, all of then young, were forced to fend for themselves. I described Hamzi then as a scared and quiet boy. His mother, Asmaa, was placed in administrative detention (arrest without trial). She spent nine months in prison, all the while suffering from a brain tumor. The family home was destroyed in 2002 by a missile fired by an Apache helicopter, but was rebuilt and is now roomy, pleasant and well-tended, with pictures of the father and his sons on a large poster in the living room. Two of Hamzi’s brothers, Abed and Amad, are also imprisoned in Israel.
Ater hearing that her son had been killed Saturday, Asmaa was hospitalized. When we parted from him two weeks ago and told him to take care of himself, he told us, “There’s nothing to worry about.”I'm sure there was no reason - no reason at all - for that home to be destroyed or for Israel to try to arrest the son. /sarc But in fact, there weremany reasons.
According to the IDF, Israeli security forces surrounded Abu al-Hija’s house, where he barricaded himself. After refusing to come out, soldiers stormed the hideout where a shootout took place. Abu al-Hija was the only person in the building after everyone else evacuated.
When he attempted to escape, Abu al-Hija opened fire first on an army dog sent inside the building and then on troops. The IDF returned fire and shot Abu al-Hija dead.
Abu al-Hija was “wanted for numerous shooting and bombing attacks as well as planning future acts of terrorism.” The Palestinian Ma’an News agency reported that an IDF bulldozer was used to demolish part of the house where Abu al-Hija was hiding.
IDF Spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner confirmed that Abu al-Hija opened fire on security forces while attempting to escape. Lerner said that Abu al-Hija was a “ticking time bomb,” waiting to carry out numerous terrorist attacks against Israel.
Abu al-Hija’s father, Jamal Abu al-Hija, is a famous Hamas leader who was arrested in 2002 by Israel. Sentenced to nine life sentences, Jamal Abu al-Hija took part in at least six known terrorist attacks, including the Jerusalem Sbarro pizza shop bombing in 2001 that killed 15 people.
In a statement from prison, Jamal Abu al-Hija extolled his son’s “heroism” and “blessed his confrontation with occupation forces until his last bullet.” He added that he had been praying for his son’s martyrdom from prison.What nice people. Just give them a mistake, and I am sure that they will stop trying to murder everyone around them. /sarc.
