In an incident that happened Saturday afternoon at the entrance to the Israeli village of Gan Nir in the Gilboa region, a 19-year-old Arab-Israeli named Diyar Omri from the village of Sandala was shot to death after what appears to be a road-rage fight with a legally armed citizen. However, although Omri is not a Palestinian and there is no indication that the incident took place on a nationalistic basis, this did not prevent the terrorist organizations from taking advantage of the momentum to further heat up the tense atmosphere and launch threats toward Israel.
Hamas issued an official statement following Omri's death, calling him a martyr, and condemning the shooting and mourning his death. "We emphasize that our people will respond with force to the crimes of the occupation and the settlers. The crimes will not go unanswered, our people will increase resistance and avenge their blood," the organization stated.
⭕ The "Hamas" movement mourns the masses of our great Palestinian people, the young martyr Diyar Omari (20 years old), who was shot dead by a Zionist settler, in the town of Sandala+ pic.twitter.com/ghB9pvwNdQ
— Suat Kılıçtaş (@Suatklcts) May 7, 2023
"The blood of our people is not cheap and the enemy will pay a heavy price," added the terrorist organization. "We call on our people to confront the occupation and the settlers, and to avenge the blood of the martyr Omri and all the righteous martyrs." The Islamic Jihad also addressed the incident in the Gilboa in an official statement and claimed that Omri was shot to death by a "settler", despite the Gilboa not being over the Green Line. "This heinous crime is an extension of the enemy's policy against our people when the last actions were in Nablus and Tul-Kerem. This is an escalation of the serious violation, and the occupation bears full responsibility for this."
Diyar Omri, 19, from the village of Sandala, was shot dead by an Israeli civilian after an apparent road-rage brawl.
— Al-Shabaka الشبكة (@AlShabaka) May 8, 2023
Footage showed the shooter arguing with Omri on the side of the road before pulling a gun & shooting him to death https://t.co/tFORXsrbUe
Hours after Omri was shot to death, condemnations were also hurled towards the Israeli political system, his father called the shooter a "terrorist" and blamed the government for the incident. "My young son celebrated his birthday, all this is happening because of the racist government," he claimed. Omri's funeral though resembled not the typical Arab-Israeli ones, but rather the kind one would see in the terrorist hotspots of Jenin and Nablus. Omri's body was carried through the streets, a sea of Shahada flags with some Palestinian ones interspersed while the crowd chanted and raged at the Israelis.
I heard on the Kan report that Hamas claimed the victim as a martyr, which explains the flags.
— Rod Sales 🏹 (zero carbon kinetic solutions) (@razingarizona) May 7, 2023
Hamas's threats come at a sensitive time from a security point of view, less than two weeks before an annual parade held by them and only a few days after the death of the security prisoner Khader Adnan who died after being on a hunger strike for nearly 3 months, which led to rocket fire from Gaza. In the meantime, Israel is trying to conduct business as usual and maintain as much as possible relative peace in Gaza, allowing the entry of 15,000 Gazan workers who hold work permits. The goal is to inject oxygen into the Gazan economy while trying to cool down incitement coming from Hamas and the Jihad.
