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On September 6, 2023, Sheikh Muhammad bin Maher Al-'Aklouk, a pro-Hamas Gazan Islamic cleric and member of the Hamas-affiliated, The Association of Palestine Scholars, spoke during “a jihadi gathering” that was held in the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. In the course of his remarks the sheikh praised the perpetrator of a stabbing attack in Jerusalem and urged all the Palestinian youth in the West Bank to follow in his footsteps and “spill the blood of the occupiers” with “a knife or an ax.” He also called for the killing of female Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers to avenge what he described as the violation of the honor of the Palestinian women in the West Bank.[1]
The following are the main messages delivered in the sheikh's remarks:
The sheikh Al-'Aklouk addressed the Palestinian people and the entire Islamic nation and asserted that jihad and martyrdom for the sake of Allah are their honor and their glory, and that only jihad will save them from hellfire. He stated that, “our enemies are plotting to assassinate our commanders” and therefore, the mujahideen must be prepared to sacrifice their lives for the sake of Allah.
Referring to them as “the criminal Zionists” the sheikh also threatened the Israelis that they will pay a heavy price for their crimes against the Palestinians, describing the price to them as “… the casting of terror among you, the spilling of your blood, and the scattering of your body parts… until you leave our land.”
He praised the perpetrator of the September 6 stabbing attack in Jerusalem, in which two people were injured, and said that that attack was “the start of the operations by our people to avenge our blood, our women, and our honor.” Brandishing an ax, he thanked “Jerusalem's youth and its heroes” for the sacrifice they are making for Allah using such weapons for they have no others, and because they “are teaching the enemy lessons that he will not forget.” He further called on all the youth of the West Bank not to hesitate, “to kill the occupiers and to spill their blood with a knife or an ax,” as is written in the hadith attributed to the Prophet Muhammad, which reads, “The [gates of] Jannah [Paradise] are under the shades of the swords.”
Al-'Aklouk referred to various media reports according to which IDF soldiers forcibly stripped Palestinian women in Hebron during a search for weapons. While waving a rifle he addressed the residents of Hebron and the entire West Bank, saying, “The time has come to shake the dust off the guns and aim them at the occupiers.” He also urged them to seek out female IDF soldiers and shoot them “in every part of their bodies,” to avenge what he referred to as the violation of the honor of the Palestinian women.
At the conclusion of the event, Al-'Aklouk declaimed a pledge of allegiance to jihad and martyrdom for the sake of Allah, and his fellow cleric, sheikh Muhammad Rajab Salah, who also participated in the event, added that the pledge was also “a death pledge to [a pledge to die for] the resistance commander Abu Khalid Muhammad Al-Deif, to all the commanders of the mujahideen, and to all the factions.”
It is notable that sheikh Al-'Aklouk is known for make threatening and inflammatory statements about Israel, and also about the Palestinian Authority, which he claims collaborates with it.[2]
[1] Telegram, September 8, 2023.
[2] See for example MEMRI TV Report: Gaza Friday Sermon By Islamic Scholar Sheikh Mahmoud Al-Aklouk Warns Fatah: We Will Show You No Mercy When We Cleanse The West Bank, Like We Did In Gaza, May 5, 2023.
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