The Iran-backed terror organization Hamas is already broadcasting strong signals that it has no interest in peace and is gearing up for its next war against Israel.

The Izzadin Al-Qassam Brigades tweeted (Arabic link):

We won, and swore by Allah that we will continue to dig (tunnels), and create more (rockets), and recruit thousands more, and develop thousands of weapons and we recharge the mortars and weapons towards the coming devastating battle of liberation.

Senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar recently emerged from hiding and pledged that the terrorist group, which initially seized power in a bloody 2007 military coup, would continue “arming itself and developing its resistance capacity.”

Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, who is currently being hosted by the Gulf state of Qatar, praised Iran for its support. Meshaal said ties with Iran were strong, despite a rift that developed when Hamas leaders supported the rebellion against the Iranian-supported dictator, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

An Iranian press report said that Meshaal “stressed that Iran’s financial and military support has played an influential role in the achievements” of Hamas. A few weeks ago, top Iranian officials boasted of the military support they had given Hamas to fight against Israel.

However, veteran Arab affairs analyst Ehud Yaari wrote (Hebrew link) that Hamas was still facing an uphill struggle to return to the same military capacity it had two months ago:

Yesterday they did the inevitable and got people into the streets for a victory celebration. But there weren’t thousands, certainly not tens of thousands. During the past day you saw some of the (Hamas) military commanders, not all of them, beginning to emerge from the bunkers after 50 days.

Hamas has no real feeling of achievement. There’s an attempt to manufacture an air of accomplishment, “we did it, we held our own for 50 days, yes,” but when they measure the results of what we see now – they’ll see the slim chances that they’ll achieve their (demands of) crossings, sea port, airport, etc in the round of talks that will start in Cairo – they will say to themselves the it’s the same ceasefire they could have obtained a month ago.

Prof. Beverley Milton-Edwards, a British specialist on Hamas, was quoted saying that “Hamas has a record of engaging in spoiler violence in order to have a negative impact on peace implementation.”

[Photo: Izzadin Al-Qassam website]