BICOM

A report in Haaretz this morning claims that Hamas is re-establishing terror cells in the West Bank, under remote command from Gaza, dominated by prisoners Israel released in the deal to free kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011.

The report says that Israel’s security services, with the help of Palestinian Authority (PA) forces, have largely shattered the Hamas military hierarchy in the West Bank in recent years. As a result, Hamas has founded a remote command in the Gaza Strip, an area under its control since 2007. Apparently, activities are being coordinated by Salah Aruri, a Hamas leader expelled by Israel from the West Bank several years ago. He is thought to command Hamas operatives who were released by Israel as part of the agreement to release Gilad Shalit. They include Abed El-Rachman Ranimat, who was convicted of involvement in a series of attacks on Israelis in the 1990s and Ma’azen Fukaha, who was involved in a suicide bombing on an Israeli bus in 2002.

Haaretz suggests that several factors are motivating Hamas’ drive to re-establish a West Bank presence. The organisation dare not launch significant attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip for fear of facing a serious IDF response, in the knowledge that Egypt’s military rulers view Hamas as an enemy and will not temper Israel’s actions. Hamas is also apparently encouraged by several terrorist attacks against Israelis in the West Bank during the last three months, which have been seemingly uncoordinated. In October, an Israeli man was bludgeoned to death in the Jordan Valley a week after a nine-year-old girl was shot by an assailant just outside her home in Psagot. In September, an IDF soldier was kidnapped and murdered near Beit Amin and another was shot dead in Hebron.

However, a Hamas initiative to re-establish its presence in the PA-dominated West Bank would appear to conflict with reports earlier this week that Hamas has agreed to join a PA-led Palestinian unity government.