The New West Bank Terrorist Group Attacking Israelis and Opposed to the Palestinian Authority

In the past few weeks, the IDF has killed at least five Palestinians affiliated with a new organization calling itself the Lions’ Den, which has claimed responsibility for repeatedly shooting at the village of Har Bracha, and for attacks on Israeli soldiers. Khaled Abu Toameh explains what is known about this group:

No one knows exactly how many young men have joined the Lions’ Den. It’s also not clear who funds the group. A Palestinian Authority (PA) security source, however, estimated that the group has fewer than 100 gunmen from several Palestinian factions. “These young men have formed a militia that believes in the armed struggle,” said the source. “It’s possible that some factions, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, give them money to buy weapons.”

[The group’s] members are all in their twenties and belong to the post-second-intifada generation of Palestinians. Some of the gunmen hail from middle-class families and are said to have purchased their weapons with their own money. This is the first organized armed group that consists of gunmen belonging to a number of Palestinian factions—including Fatah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Last week, Palestinian sources revealed that the senior Hamas operative Musab Shtayyeh, who was recently arrested by the Palestinian Authority security forces, was also a member of the Lions’ Den. His arrest triggered fierce clashes between Palestinian protesters and PA security forces in Nablus. One Palestinian was killed and several others were injured in the clashes. Some Fatah activists have accused Hamas of instigating the violence in Nablus.

Read more at Jerusalem Post

More about: Palestinian Authority, Palestinian terror, West Bank

Why South Africa Has Led the Legal War against Israel

South Africa filed suit with the International Court of Justice in December accusing Israel of genocide. More recently, it requested that the court order the Jewish state to allow humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip—something which, of course, Israel has been doing since the war began. Indeed, the country’s ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC) has had a long history of support for the Palestinian cause, but Orde Kittrie suggests that the current government, which is plagued by massive corruption, has more sinister motives for its fixation on accusing Israel of imagined crimes:

ANC-led South Africa has . . . repeatedly supported Hamas. In 2015 and 2018, the ANC and Hamas signed memoranda of understanding pledging cooperation against Israel. The Daily Maverick, a South African newspaper that previously won an international award for exposing ANC corruption, has reported claims that Iran “essentially paid the ANC to litigate against Israel in the ICJ.”

The ANC-led government says it is motivated by humanitarian principle. That’s contradicted by its support for Russia, and by [President Cyril] Ramaphosa’s warmly welcoming a visit in January by Mohamed Dagalo, the leader of the Sudanese-Arab Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia. Ramaphosa’s smiling, hand-holding welcome of Dagalo occurred two months after the RSF’s systematic massacre of hundreds of non-Arab Sudanese refugees in Darfur.

While the ANC has looted its own country and aided America’s enemies, the U.S. is insulating the party from the consequences of its corruption and mismanagement.

In Kittrie’s view, it is “time for Congress and the Biden administration to start helping South Africa’s people hold Ramaphosa accountable.”

Read more at The Hill

More about: International Law, Iran, South Africa