Iran Encourages Islamic Jihad To Resume Attacks
Iran has been prodding Palestinian jihadists to resume hostilities against Israel, a Palestinian security official told Breitbart Jerusalem.
He said that Palestinian security services have noticed increased efforts on the part of the Iran-financed Islamic Jihad terrorist organization in Gaza to recruit West Bank operatives, especially in and around the cities of Hebron and Jenin.
The official states that Iran, encouraged by Hamas’s success in restoring its infrastructure in the West Bank, charged Hizbullah with recruiting militants formerly associated with Fatah’s military wing, and has more recently turned to Islamic Jihad in hopes that the terror group would rebuild its own West Bank infrastructure, which was left in ruins at the end of the Second Intifada.
Last week, the Israeli media reported that members of an Islamic Jihad cell were arrested after they planned to carry out an attack on a wedding in the south of Israel and kidnap soldiers.
Among the detainees were an Islamic Jihad operative who was arrested upon attempting to enter Israel as an international businessman, two Palestinians who resided in Israel illegally, and an Arab Israeli man.
Defections To ISIS Has Hamas Worried
Hamas leaders have become increasingly worried as the movement has been hemorrhaging militants who join the Islamic State and similarly radical organizations, a source in Hamas told Breitbart Jerusalem.
The Hamas source in Gaza revealed that three prominent members of Izz al-Din al Qassam Brigades, the movement’s military wing, left Gaza through an underground cross-border tunnel to join ISIS forces in Sinai last week.
The source said that the three, all members of Hamas’s elite unit in the central Gaza Strip, won top spots in the movement’s recent performance competition.
In the past year, Hamas launched “re-education” committees for members who are suspected of having been “led astray” by ISIS ideology. But in recent months, Hamas has unofficially admitted to the effort’s failure.
Last week’s defection came a few days after three Hamas members who had been suspected of masterminding the assassination of Mithqal Alsalmi, a prominent Shi’ite activist in Gaza, reportedly fled the Strip to join ISIS in Sinai.
The source added that the killer himself belonged to Hamas’s elite unit in Western Gaza City, and was in charge of training militants. In addition to his two accomplices who escaped with him, a fourth man was arrested by Hamas police.
The source said that the recent clampdown on Salafists in Gaza is driven by their growing sway in Hamas’s ranks. Hundreds of arrests have been made, including that of Abdullah Alashkar, a top Salafi militant accused of masterminding dozens of rocket attacks on Israel, as well as the bombing of a CIA vehicle in Gaza in 2006.
Hamas has also led a campaign against Salafi clerics who have been actively recruiting Hamas militants. The source said Hamas recently realized that ISIS’s foothold within Hamas ranks is more significant than previously suspected, and that many members have pledged allegiance to ISIS without formally renouncing their membership.
Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades Tired Of Sitting Still, Wants New Attacks
The commanders of Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Fatah’s military wing, have been mulling the possibility of turning their guns against Israel and the Palestinian Authority’s “despots,” a top Brigade militant told Breitbart Jerusalem.
The militant said that since the end of the Second Intifada, and the amnesty agreement that was reached with Israel shortly after Hamas’s takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007, “the occupation only deepened, and corruption in the PA only widened. The people are desperate for a game change that would turn the tables and bring the Palestinian question back to the top of the agenda.”
In the wake of the Arab Spring, he said, the community of nations lost interest in the Palestinians, “thereby allowing Israel to continue its mistreatment of the Palestinians, and allowing the corrupt PA leadership to gain wealth and property at the expense of the Palestinian people.”
The Ramallah-based militant, who spewed anti-Israel propaganda, denied that the new development of debating a resumption of attacks had to do with infighting in the PA leadership. “It has nothing to do with power politics,” he said. “We’re neither Dahlan’s nor Abbas’s people. We are the ones who sacrificed our lives and friends during the Intifada and find ourselves in a reality with no future, both personally and nationally. The claims that Dahlan is funding us are lies. We see him as equally to blame for the situation we’re in as Abbas.”
He was referring to Palestinian strongman Mahmoud Dahlan, a rival to PA President Mahmoud Abbas.
The militant said that former activists from the central and northern West Bank, especially in the refugee camps, have met over the past few weeks and discussed reviving the militia.
“We published one tract, which means that we identify unrest among the rank and file,” he said. “They are the same people who in the aftermath of the Intifada sought calm and stability, and understand that what we need today is action that would jolt the order of things, and perhaps more determined action on our part would instill this consciousness in the minds of the Palestinians.”
The militant refused to specify whether that “determined action” would include terrorist attacks or something else.
“There will be action against Israel and the corrupt PA leaders,” he said. “We have yet to decide what it will look like, because all the people involved have paid a heavy price and aren’t keen to go back to the armed struggle.”
One option, he said, is “popular action, such as strikes, sit-ins and demonstrations at checkpoints. Over the past few months, the collaboration of the PA’s security services with the occupation army have put an end to the struggle that started with stabbings and demonstrations last October. We will make sure that if we decide to rekindle this kind of struggle, no cooperation will suppress it.”
He said that Hamas is constantly laboring to carry out attacks in the West Bank, welcoming them and taking responsibility for them.
“That’s also an option – to confront the enemy without doing it officially as the Al Aqsa Brigades,” he said. “Finally, we can relaunch our organizational infrastructure and declare war on Israel. But in such case, we won’t allow the corrupted PA leaders to continue to get rich on our backs.”