PA daily op-ed demonizes Israel’s founders as “Zionist gangs” whose "barbarity" caused Palestinians to flee in 1948: “The fear of women’s bellies being split open with knives, rifle bayonets, or direct gunfire and the killing of fetuses”

Excerpt of an op-ed by Muwaffaq Matar, Fatah Revolutionary Council member and regular columnist for the official PA daily

“The names of the Palestinian fetuses and babies whose souls ascended to Heaven in two nights of barbaric and criminal aggression against the Gaza Strip (refers to Israeli response to Gaza rocket attacks in May 2019; see note below –Ed.) remind us of the stories of the Palestinians who were forced to emigrate in their escape from the armed Zionist gangs’ barbarity, from their establishment in our land… until the war of 1948 (i.e., Israel’s War of Independence). The fear of women’s bellies being split open with knives, rifle bayonets, or direct gunfire and the killing of fetuses caused many pregnant Palestinian women to flee the hell of such a fate.”

May 2019 Gaza rocket attacks – The Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations in Gaza launched a rocket barrage on Israeli civilian population centers on May 4, 2019, firing more than 700 rockets and murdering 4 Israelis in the course of two days. Israel responded by striking terror targets; 23 Gazans, many of them terrorists, were killed during the exchange of fire. On May 6 a ceasefire agreement was reached between Israel and Hamas.