Responsibility for Rocket Attacks on Israel Declared on Twitter
In a series of messages posted on its Twitter account on July 8, 2014, the Brigades of Abdullah Azzam claimed that it launched a total of seven rockets into Israel in revenge for the recent military offensive in Gaza.
The group tweeted:
Your brothers in the Brigades of Abdullah Azzam - Yahya Ayyash Brigades- fulfilled the Shariah duty to support our Muslims brothers everywhere.
After the repeated crimes of the Jews and their assaults, and most recent is what the whole world is seeing in the [West] Bank and Gaza...
The Brigades—an affiliate of the al-Qaeda group in Syria, al-Nusra Front—announced that its Yahya Ayyash Battalion fired rockets into Ashkelon, Netivot, Sderot, and the Sha’ar Hanif complex, and promised that a video is forthcoming of the attacks.
Vouching to continue their fight the group tweeted:
We say to the Jews and their allies from the border guards [Hezbollah]: Our war with you is continuing as long as your presence in Palestine is continuing, and as long as your oppression of Muslims is a reality.
Created in November 2013, only seven months ago, the group Twitter account has more than 10,000 followers, and contains claims for attacks in Lebanon and Israel, threats against Jews and Shia', and reports about the group's martyrs.
The Yahya Ayyash Brigades has claimed rocket strikes on Israel since January 2014, including an attack on a location near Ariel Sharon’s funeral. While a link appeared to exist between the attack and the Brigades of Abdullah Azzam, the messages claiming the latest attack are the first public confirmation of the connection.
