Is Iran Behind PRC’s Suspected Attacks on Israelis?
Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu responded swiftly to the killing of eight of its citizens, including that of 22-year-old Staff Sergeant Moshe Naftali, in a series of coordinated attacks on Israeli vehicles in southern resort city of Eilat.
“We have a principle - when Israeli citizens are harmed, we react at once and with force,” Netanyahu said on Thursday, speaking on Israeli TV.
He said the six Palestinians allegedly involved in the attack on Israelis and suspected to be members of Gaza-based Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), were killed in an air raid, which included PRC head Kamal al-Nairab and military chief Immad Hammad, reports said.
The PRC was founded in September 2000, the same month in which a brutal terror war (sometimes known as the “Second Intifada”) was launched that claimed more than a thousand Israeli lives. The PRC is a coalition of various armed Palestinian factions, which vehemently oppose the conciliatory approach of the Palestinian Authority and Fatah towards Israel.
Active in the Gaza Strip, the military wing of the PRC is the al-Naser Salah ad-Din Brigades. Refusing any form of reconciliation with Israel, the PRC acts as a sub-contractor for Iranian elements in Lebanon and within the Hezbollah, carrying out terror attacks against Israelis in return for funds, Israel Defense Forces alleged in a statement.
The PRC is also funded and supported directly by Hamas, said Israel. By allowing the PRC to operate as an ostensibly independent proxy, Hamas is able to cause terror attacks against Israelis while maintaining an official stance of “restraint”. In addition to monthly funding, Hamas also provides the PRC with weapons and battle training.
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