CBNNews.com - JERUSALEM, Israel - Israeli defense officials reported an increase in acts of terrorism by Arabs affiliated with Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction.

Last month, Fatah members smuggled a 120-pound bomb into a mall in the northern port city of Haifa, aided by Hezbollah terrorists to revenge the death of Imad Mughniyeh, according to a senior PA official quoted in the Israeli daily Haaretz.

Mughniyeh, the group's deputy commander, was killed by a car bomb in Damascus in February 2008. Hezbollah blamed Israel for his death, vowing to take revenge on Israeli Jews and Jewish institutions worldwide.

In a separate incident in the Jordan Valley in March, two Israeli policemen were murdered when they stopped to help Arab motorists pretending to change a flat tire.

Last week, a 13-year-old Israeli from the community of Bat Ayin was bludgeoned to death by an ax-wielding Arab from a nearby village.

According to defense officials, Iranian-sponsored terror groups, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Syria, are providing training and funding for Fatah-affiliated Israeli Arabs.

Source: Haaretz