Israeli authorities said on Saturday they had found no evidence of Islamic State involvement in attacks by three Palestinians that killed an Israeli policewoman, despite the group’s claim of responsibility.
Palestinian militant factions also denied the IS was involved in the attacks in Jerusalem on Friday, in which a second Israeli police officer was wounded.
The IS’s claim of responsibility was reported by the group’s Amaq news agency on Friday. Police spokeswoman Luba Simri said the Israeli military had so far found no connection between the three assailants and any armed group.
“It was a local cell. At this stage no indication has been found it was directed by terrorist organisations nor has any connection to any organisation been found,” Ms. Simri said. The SITE intelligence monitoring group said it was the first time the IS had claimed responsibility for an attack inside Israeli-controlled territory.
However, a senior official from Hamas, the Islamic group that rules the Gaza Strip, and the People’s Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said the three attackers, who were all shot dead at the scene, were their own members.
‘Hero martyrs’
“The three hero martyrs who executed the Jerusalem operation have no connection to Daesh (Islamic State), they are affiliated with the PFLP and Hamas,” Hamas’ Izzat El-Reshiq wrote on Twitter.
In a separate statement, the PFLP identified two of the three attackers as its members. “The media office of the PFLP armed wing mourns two of its hero comrades, two freed prisoners,” it said. Israeli police said on Friday all the assailants were from the occupied West Bank.