Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said the attack is “proof of the vitality and bravery of the Palestinian people, and of the fact that it will not surrender to the crimes and terrorism of the occupation.”

(August 23, 2019 / JNS) Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh praised the “heroic” perpetrators of the bombing that killed an Israeli teenage girl, while seriously injuring her father and brother in the West Bank on Friday.

At his weekly Friday sermon, Haniyeh said the attack is “proof of the vitality and bravery of the Palestinian people, and of the fact that it will not surrender to the crimes and terrorism of the occupation.”

No terror group has claimed responsibility for the explosion near Bubin spring, a popular hiking spot, that killed 17-year-old Rina Shnerb and injured her father Eitan Shnerb, a rabbi, and her brother, Dvir, 19, from Lod in central Israel.

Gaza’s other main terrorist group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, also praised the attack, saying it was “a natural response to the actions of occupation forces and settler gangs against the Palestinian people.”

It added: “Resistance lives and is expanding … will continue to escalate as long as the aggression against our people continues.”