Over the weekend Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh called on Palestinians to launch another war against Israel, triggering speculation by analysts that the terror group was desperate to restore its flagging popularity by orchestrating spectacular violence against Israel.
A website affiliated with Hamas’s Al Qassam Brigades is now conveying comments from Khaled Mashaal, Hamas’s political bureau head, echoing Haniyeh:
Head of Hamas’s political bureau Khaled Mashaal said that the West Bank is getting prepared for another round of confrontation against the Israeli occupation and the harbingers of a new intifada are looming… “The oppressors, the enemies and the rivals suppress our people in the West Bank, but today it is growing restless and getting prepared for a new round. It will not be long until you see what pleases you, God willing,” Mashaal stated.
Palestinian areas of the West Bank are controlled not by Hamas but by the group’s rival, the Palestinian Fatah faction.
Hamas’s focus on rebuilding its terror infrastructure in those areas has been taken as a sign that the group judges itself unable to successfully launch terror campaigns from within the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
Israeli security around the territory is tight, and efforts to export terrorism have largely been foiled. Two tunnels dug deep into Israel and intended for terror operations have been uncovered in recent days. Palestinian groups have tested the ceasefire established after Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense with rocket attacks, and Israeli has subsequently moved to restore its deterrent.
Palestinian fighters – who have bragged in the past about timing rocket fire to coincide with children traveling to and from school – launched rockets in early April on the day Israeli children were returning to school following the Passover holiday. The Israeli military responded with airstrikes targeting terrorist infrastructure, and within weeks conducted a pinpoint strike against terrorist Haitham Al-Mishal, who was reportedly affiliated with multiple Palestinian terror groups. Israel Radio military affairs correspondent Carmela Menashe noted at the time that Israel was enforcing a “commitment” to maintain quiet along the border.
Meanwhile Egypt and Israel have been steadily boosting their anti-terror cooperation since literally the week that the Egyptian army, responding to mass anti-government demonstrations, removed from power Egypt’s former Muslim Brotherhood-linked president Mohammed Morsi. Within weeks analysts were already talking about a “counterterrorism partnership.”
For its part Egypt also warned Hamas against firing rockets into Israel, and has threatened the group with catastrophic consequences if it operates from the nearby Sinai Peninsula.
[Photo: Trango / WikiCommons ]
