Umm al-Fahm, from where the two terrorists embarked on their murderous attack in central Hadera on Sunday, is a bastion of the "Northern Branch" of the Islamic Movement in Israel, which harbors clear ideological and sometimes even practical affiliation with the Hamas terrorist organization. In recent years, Umm al-Fahm has been the starting point for several terrorist attacks, most of which were carried out by individuals affiliated with the "branch."
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The most infamous such attack was perpetrated on the Temple Mount in July 2017, when three terrorists from the Northern Branch, all of them members of the Jabarin clan, managed to infiltrate the holy site with firearms and murdered two Border Police officers – Advanced Staff Sgt. Maj. Hayil Satawi, and Advanced Staff Sgt. Maj. Kamil Shnaan. Several days later, the funeral procession for the terrorists, who were shot to death, erupted into a fiery display of hatred for Israel, attended by some 10,000 Umm al-Fahm residents.
The leader of the outlawed Northern Branch, Sheikh Raed Salah, who was recently released from Israeli prison, crowned himself years ago as the Sheikh of Al-Aqsa. His flagship battle cry throughout the years has been "Al-Aqsa is in danger." At his rallies, Salah has regularly and falsely accused Israel of wanting to destroy the Al-Aqsa mosque, situated on the Temple Mount, vowing that Muslims are prepared to become shahids (martyrs) "for Al-Aqsa." These rallies have produced their fair share of rioters and terrorists.
In recent years, Israeli security forces arrested at least two additional cells of terrorists from Umm al-Fahm. One of the cells belongs to the Islamic State group and the other to the Northern Branch; both planned terrorist attacks at the Temple Mount, similar to the attack in July 2017. Last December, a resident of Umm al-Fahm, who was shot and killed, tried running over two on-duty Border Policemen who were on patrol in the city. In May of 2021, as riots raged in mixed Arab-Jewish cities across the country, residents of Umm al-Fahm assaulted Jews, with the most prominent incident being the near-lynching of a Jewish family that mistakenly entered the town.
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