Palestinian President Abbas’s Fatah Party Mocks ‘Fearful’ Israelis Running From Hamas Rocket Attacks

Benjamin Kerstein

An Iron Dome battery fires an interceptor missile as rockets are launched from Gaza toward Israel near the southern city of Sderot, Aug. 9, 2018. Photo: Reuters / Amir Cohen.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party reacted with glee to last week’s massive rocket barrage on Israel’s south.

According to monitoring group Palestinian Media Watch, the official Fatah Facebook page posted a photo of Israeli medics on the scene of the rocket strikes and wrote, “Going down to the shelters, their hearts filled with fear.”

Another image claimed Israelis were evacuating the southern town of Ashkelon, with text claiming, “The Palestinian resistance is turning the occupied settlement of Ashkelon into a ghost town as a result of the repeated missile attacks.”

“Ashkelon is a ghost town,” the post added. “Emigration from Palestine under the resistance’s missiles.”

Ashkelon is not a settlement and was not evacuated during the rocket attacks.

A cartoon was also published showing a woman and her child fleeing Ashkelon. Hebrew text superimposed over the image said, “The army is using the city [of Ashkelon] in the cruel operations against us, and therefore we will respond to this. It is preferable to move as far away from the city as possible.”