Palestinian Factions Condemn PLO Security Forces Assassination of Palestinian Activist

Gaza, MINA – The Palestinian resistance factions strongly condemned the assassination of the Palestinian activist and politician, Nizar Banat, deputy head of the Freedom and Dignity List for the legislative elections, by the security forces of Palestinian Liberation Authority headed by Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday.

In a press statement, Hamas said, “This premeditated and organized crime reflects the intentions and behavior of Abbas’s authority and his security services towards our Palestinian people, activists and his political opponents.”

“The Hamas movement mourns the martyr of Palestine, Nizar Banat, and extends its deepest condolences and sympathy for his family and relatives, and hold Mahmoud Abbas and his authority fully responsible for all the repercussions and consequences of this heinous crime that is added to a series of crimes and violations of this authority against our people. The blood of Nizar will continue to be a curse on the criminals and murderers who sold themselves and their consciences to the enemies -Israeli Occupation- of our Palestinian people,” said Hamas, as MINA’s contributor in Gaza reported.

The Islamic Jihad Movement said in a statement, “The Palestinian activist, Nizar Banat, has been subjected to a long campaign of police pursuit, harassment, arrest, distortion and threats because of his political stances and opposition to the authority policies and criticism of its influential leaders. Despite all these attempts to suppress and silence him, his positions did not change until he was attacked and killed in a heinous crime aimed at terrorizing all opponents of the Abbas Authority and its approach.”

She stressed “the arrest and then the assassination of Nizar open again the role and function of the authority and its security services of violations against democratic rights of Palestinian citizens, through the policy of silencing, persecution, arrest and killing. What happened is intolerable and cannot be passed unnoticed. Our Palestinian people and their cause are more than sanctifying people or institutions at the expense of our national cause, rights, dignity, and freedom”

Hamas called on all Palestinian factions and institutions to stand up to their responsibilities, take bold and responsible national decisions towards those responsible and those involved in this heinous crime, and work to protect our people from the oppression, arrogance and criminality of this authority and its organs, and to change this dangerous reality imposed by the Palestinian Authority and its security coordination with the occupation in the West Bank.

Palestinian masses also called for the widest national and popular participation in the funeral of the martyr Nizar Banat, demanding the resistance factions, popular, civil and human rights institutions, and Palestinian clans in the widest solidarity with the martyr’s families, and rejecting injustice and tyranny by the Israel-following Abbas Authority in the West Bank. (L-K-G/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)