The Palestinian Authority once again provoked the indignation of the Palestinian grassroots on Sunday, February 15, after its “preventive” security forces killed two Palestinian children in an ambush that was carried out to arrest their father in Tamoun town in the northern West Bank governorate of Tubas.

The murdered children were identified as Ali Samara (14), who died immediately, and his four-year-old sister Ronza Samara, who succumbed to her injuries after being transferred to a hospital.

Their father Samer Samara, who, according to local media outlets, was wanted by the Israeli occupation, was injured in the deadly attack, before he was arrested by the PA’s forces.

An audio recording attributed to Yazan Samara, another son of Samer, in which he explained the circumstances of the incident, circulated online. The grief-stricken son said that he was with his family in the car, when the preventive forces and a special force affiliated with the Palestinian Authority encircled the vehicle and opened fire at them.

“They riddled the car with bullets. They were carrying rifles usually used by the Israeli Occupation Forces and they were all wearing masks. My brother was martyred in front of me, while my father was shot in his legs before being arrested,” Samer’s surviving son said.

Some media outlets reported that Samer’s wife and other two daughters, were also traveling in the same car at the time of the attack, but they somehow survived.

Crowds of Palestinians gathered in front of the Turkish hospital in Tubas, where the injured members of the Samara family were reportedly admitted, to protest against the PA’s attack.

The PA’s Preventive Security Services claim responsibility for the attack

For many, the security services affiliated with the PA have always sought to deny its responsibility for similar crimes, and to provide misleading information to the public regarding their details.

Read more: Palestinian Authority security forces kill female journalist in Jenin

However, the survival of some members of the Samara family, who were eyewitnesses of the incident may have pushed the involved security services to claim full responsibility for the attack.

On Monday, February 16, the Palestinian Preventive Services (PSS) issued a statement announcing that the institution bears “the national, moral and legal responsibility” for the attack “in all its security, humanitarian and legal dimensions” and “in a way that guarantees the principles of transparency and accountability, and bolsters civil and social peace”.

Palestinian factions condemn the assault

Palestinian factions reacted to the tragic incident by releasing separate statements, denouncing the lethal operation.

Hamas “held the PA’s leadership accountable for the repercussions of its repressive policies, which threatens the national fabric.”

Meanwhile, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) branded the incident as “a distressing and dangerous event that exceeds national and social norms, and constitutes a harm to the daily sacrifices” of the Palestinian people in confrontation with the occupation.

The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) called on the PA to hold everybody, who gave orders to “commit the crime” accountable, and prosecute them.

Whereas, the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) described the onslaught as “a heinous crime, which occurred as a result of an unacceptable policy of prosecution against the resistance fighters and the mujahideen in the West Bank in order to appease the Zionist enemy.”

The Palestinian National Initiative demanded that the PA open an immediate investigation and punish all those “who caused the death of the two innocent children”.

Peoples Dispatch also received a version of a statement issued by the Palestinian Popular Conference (also known as 14 Million), in which it accused the PA of “offering the blood of the Palestinian people” as “credentials” to “external agencies”.

The conference also said that the repetition of such violations affirms the failure of the PA’s security services in protecting the Palestinian people, which also converts them into militias that act above the law.

The movement further demanded the following:

The immediate and unconditional release of Samer Samara.Revealing the identity of those found complicit in the shooting order, and that they be brought to public trial. The resignation of the Palestinian Ministry of Interior.The dismissal of the head of the Preventive Security Services.Restructuring all the PA’s security apparatus from scratch and rectifying its doctrine, except for the police services, which should remain operating to protect and serve the citizens.

The grave crime constitutes an assault on the struggle of the Palestinian people against the Israeli occupation, says Omar Assaf

Political activist, freedom fighter and former prisoner in Israeli jails, Omar Assaf, considered the incident “an assault on the Palestinian people as a whole, and on their struggle and resistance against the Israeli occupation.” He also branded it “a blatant assault against children”.

From Assaf’s point of view the event reflects “the political bankruptcy which the officials in the PA have reached, because the main responsibility for what happened lies with the political leaders of the PA. Therefore, these leaders should be brought to trial for this grave crime.”

“It also reflects the overarching nature of the PA’s security services, which function with an entrenched mentality that [US security coordinator for Israel-Palestinian Authority] Keith W. Dayton had established,” he added.

Assaf warned that the PA’s actions threaten Palestinian civil peace at a time when Palestinians are in dire need of enhancing their unity amid the ongoing crimes of the Israeli occupation, especially after Israel’s endorsement of new annexation measures in the occupied West Bank.

Read more: Israel approves new measures aimed at expanding its control over the West Bank

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