The Palestinian Authority Hails a Terrorist

Order Michael Finch’s new book, A Time to Stand: HERE. Prof. Jason Hill calls it “an aesthetic and political tour de force.”

A 16-year-old Palestinian boy was killed after he threw hand grenades at IDF soldiers near Jenin. At first the Palestinian Authority (PA) identified him — correctly — as a “jihad martyr,” but a day later, it changed its story and claimed he was merely an innocent boy trying to deliver a package. More on this shape-shifting claim can be found here:

The Palestinian Authority continues its hypocrisy about killed terrorists. The “successful” terrorists are coined heroic fighters, and the PA names schools, streets, and squares after them. If they are young terrorists and the PA wants the world to condemn Israel, they are repackaged as innocent victims. Such was the case of 16-year-old Islamic Jihad terrorist Muhammad Iyad Abahreh, who was killed after throwing hand grenades at Israeli soldiers near Jenin.

Text on picture:
“Martyr Jihad fighter
Muhammad Iyad Abahreh
One of the Jihad fighters of the Al-Quds Brigades, Al-Yamun Brigade
Al-Quds Brigades – Military Media”

Islamic Jihad’s terror wing, the Al-Quds Brigades, openly lauded Abahreh as one of its fighters. The group proudly described him as a “Jihad fighter,” declared that he died as a “Martyr,” and vowed to continue armed resistance…

Another photograph showed his coffin being carried, with the accompanying description: “The Al-Quds Brigades accompany to his wedding Martyr Muhammad Abahreh from Jenin.” The Al-Quds Brigades hailed Abahreh as “one of the Jihad fighters of the Al-Yamun Brigade” and said that he “ascended to Heaven as a Martyr after he managed to engage with the occupation (i.e., Israeli) soldiers and threw several hand grenades at them during an invasion of the town of Silat Al-Harithiya yesterday evening, Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025.”

Yet having first hailed his “heroic” act, in throwing grenades at IDF soldiers, the Palestinian Authority decided to turn this “jihad fighter” into an innocent victim:

Just one day later, the Palestinian Authority’s official daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, published a fabricated version of the attack. The “Jihad fighter” became a “young boy,” the grenade attack was erased, Islamic Jihad was not mentioned, and Israeli soldiers were accused of killing him while he was “delivering a package.” Abahreh is painted as a “loved, diligent, seeker of knowledge” whose “death as a Martyr halted his aspirations” to graduate high school and help his parents.

Young Muhammad Abahreh was no longer a fighter, as he had been depicted the day before, but now was an innocent young boy merely trying to deliver a package when the heartless IDF murdered him for no reason.

Muhammad Abahreh was now depicted as just a hard-working student, hoping to continue his education, in order to then get a good job, so as to be able, as a dutiful son, to support his parents and siblings. And then the IDF destroyed everything.

Take your pick. The PA has provided the world with two contradictory versions of Muhammad Abahreh. He was either a committed jihadist who bravely and singlehandedly attacked IDF soldiers, and became a “martyr,” or if you prefer, he was an innocent teenager who was only delivering a package when he was murdered by IDF soldiers, thereby killing his dreams of education and becoming the breadwinner for his impoverished family. For the propagandists of the Palestinian Authority, consistency is not their strong suit. Cognitive dissonance is.

“War is deception,” says Muhammad in a famous hadith. This deception isn’t limited to stories of innocent delivery boys. Steve Witkoff, our chief Middle East negotiator, has now said, with surprise and disappointment, that “Hamas promised me it would disarm.” But now the terror group says it won’t disarm. My goodness, Hamas wouldn’t have been fooling you, would it, Mr. Witkoff? Steve Witkoff may be a whiz at making real estate deals in New York City, but in the Middle East, he’s a babe in the woods.

Does Witkoff really think that Hamas will voluntarily disarm? How exactly will the U.S.” hold it [the Trump plan] all together”? Even the first phase of the plan did not exactly go as planned. Hamas was supposed to turn over all the dead Israelis within 72 hours; instead, it delivered them in batches of one or two.

Now the Americans are talking about a rebuilding program, with a model residential community to be built to the east of the Yellow Line, that will be seen by the Palestinians as an example of what they can all have in their future if they turn away from Hamas and help to peacefully rebuild the Strip. It just might work, if Hamas is completely disarmed and its leaders sent into exile. Only then can peaceful reconstruction begin. That is a big If, particularly in light of the deception that runs through jihadis’ dealings with infidels.