On September 6, 2023, Gaza Islamic scholar Sheikh Muhammad Bin Maher Al-Aklouk posted a video to his YouTube and Telegram channels of a speech he delivered at an event in Khan Yunis, Gaza. During his speech, Sheikh Al-Aklouk brandished a loaded M-16-style rifle and said that it is time for these rifles to be used and for bursts of gunfire to be heard in the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba. He also called on young Palestinians in the West Bank to carry out stabbing attacks using knives, axes, and cleavers. In addition, he called on the "lions" of the West Bank to "avenge" the honor of the Palestinian women, who reportedly were strip-searched in Hebron, by shooting female Israeli soldiers in the head.
Sheikh Muhammad Bin Maher Al-Aklouk: "Oh people of Hebron, the time has come to remove the dust from these rifles. The time has come to point these rifles at the occupiers. The time has come for these rifles to play their tunes. The time has come for these rifles to avenge the blood of the free-born, and the honor of our women. Oh people of Hebron, the time has come to hear bursts of gunfire in the plundering settlement of Kiryat Arba.
"Following the crime perpetrated by our enemies, who undressed five of our women, we say to all our lions in the West Bank: Search for the [Israeli] female soldiers and shoot them in the head. Search for the female soldiers and kill them wherever you may find them. Search for the female soldiers, and spray their bodies with bullets, to avenge our women and our honor.
"I say to our enemies, the criminal Zionists: Allah willing, you will pay a steep price. The price will be nothing but the shedding of your blood, and the scattering of your body parts in all directions.
"We say to all our young people in the West Bank: If you own a knife, an axe, or a cleaver—onward, onward, onward!
"Onward, confront those occupiers, and unleash great killing and bloodshed, upon them."