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Palestinian militants from the West Bank town of Jenin on Sunday called on the Palestinian Authority to join them in their fight against Israel during an interview with CNN.
“This is a message to the Palestinian leadership: if they believe in the will of the Palestinian people, they have to join the resistance and give the resistance fighters the freedom to defend and protect our people,” a leader of a Jenin-based militant group told the American cable network.
The PA has maintained its security cooperation with Israel, but some of the members of its security services have recently been involved in exchanges of fire with IDF forces.
“All Palestinian people – as a result of the [Israeli] occupation’s daily violations, and the formation of many extreme right-wing governments [in Israel] that weakened the PA and its organizations and leadership – have lost trust in all of the PA organizations,” the masked militant leader said.
“Most of our Palestinian youth that fight and become martyrs have a university or college degree. They’ve lost hope of a dignified life,” he said.
“The occupation killed off all of the peaceful solutions, and here, on this land, there is no place for peaceful solutions with this Zionist occupation,” he said. “All armed factions and every militant does not believe in a two-state solution because this occupation did not, and will not, respect any peaceful agreement. I repeat this again, those [Israeli governments] are criminal gangs.”
The six men, interviewed by the cable network, sat carrying M4 rifles with posters exhibiting pictures of "martyrs" behind them.
They said their weapons were purchased on the black market from "senior commanders" of the IDF who stole them from military bases.