WarSclerotic

Masked men belonging to various Palestinian factions on Saturday announced the establishment of the Brigades of National Unity in Hebron and the beginning of a third intifada against Israel.In a video posted on several Palestinian websites, a spokesman for the new group said it consisted of members of Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

The spokesman said that although his group backed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s statehood bid at the UN, “We will not give up one inch of the lands of Palestine, from the river to the sea.”

He said the group would “pursue our struggle until we expel the occupation and liberate all Palestine.”

The spokesman said that the new group has decided to launch the third intifada “from the heart of Hebron so that it could extend to all Palestine.”

The spokesman also threatened to kidnap IDF soldiers and kill Israelis if Israel arrested or killed Palestinians.

“We will strike at you with an iron fist with full force if you don’t stop your aggression against the Palestinian people,” the masked man threatened.

The spokesman demanded that Israel remove all checkpoints and barriers in the West Bank, release all Palestinians from Israeli prisons, withdraw fully from Palestinian territories, release funds belonging to the PA government and reopen all the border crossings.