Iran Set To Fund Islamic Jihad Again
After months of financial hardship, the coffers of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organization are set to overflow with Iranian financing as Tehran officially reconciles with Islamic Jihad leadership, Middle Eastern defense officials told KleinOnline.
Egypt is aware of Islamic Jihad members who traveled via the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and the Egyptian Sinai and from there to Tehran to facilitate the renewal of Iranian funding of Islamic Jihad, a separate Egyptian security source said.
With Islamic Jihad long refusing to aid the embattled regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a key regional ally for Iran, the Iranians until the past two weeks held back financing for most of the terrorist organization’s projects.
Islamic Jihad became so cash-strapped that even its propaganda television network needed to lay off most of its correspondents and producers. Fighters went months with depleted salaries.
Iran also may have deliberately held back financing of Islamic Jihad because of the intense nuclear negotiations that ended in an agreement last month, the defense officials said.
All that is set to change as Iran has now pledged to renew full sponsorship of Islamic Jihad, the officials said.
The information comes amid a report in Iran’s Fars news agency quoting Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham expressing support for Palestinian “resistance” groups, especially Hamas.
However, Middle Eastern defense officials here say Iran is not financing Hamas’s political leadership, which instead has drawn closer to Iran’s foe, Saudi Arabia.
Some Iranian financing is being funneled to rival members of Hamas’s so-called military wing as part of an Iranian campaign to destabilize Hamas’s political leadership, which has been engaged in long-term truce talks with Israel, the defense officials said.
The renewed Iranian funding for Islamic Jihad is already paying off.
Last Wednesday, a rocket attributed to Islamic Jihad was fired at southern Israel from the Gaza Strip. The rocket landed in the Eshkol Regional Council, with no injuries reported.
Egypt Arrests Rebel Hamas Fighters
Egypt arrested four Hamas militants suspected of attempting to travel to Turkey to train there under a rival Hamas infrastructure that does not answer to the Islamic group’s politburo, an informed Egyptian security official told this reporter.
According to initial reports, the four members of Hamas’s so-called military wing were kidnapped by an ISIS affiliate operating in the Sinai. Later, Hamas accused the Egyptian security services of kidnapping the men, who departed the Gaza Strip with dozens of civilians through the Rafah border crossing at the Gaza-Sinai border.
Now the Egyptian security official has confirmed that the four were arrested upon crossing into the Sinai. The official for the first time disclosed the name of one of the four arrested, 23-year old Yasser Zanoun, who operates as a navy commando leader in the South Gaza naval network of Hamas.
The official further said the four Hamas gunmen were en route to Turkey to train at a base run by Salah al-Arouri, a Hamas leader who has amassed significant power within the terror group’s infrastructure and directs his own wing from the NATO country.
Arouri is said to oppose Hamas’s efforts at negotiating a long-term cease-fire with Israel and may be looking to thwart the talks with attacks against the Jewish state.
Last November, Israel’s Shin Bet security service disclosed that in September it had dismantled a Hamas terror ring of 30 West Bank gunmen who were being directed by what the Shin Bet described as a Hamas base in Turkey.
The Shin Bet said the ring was preparing to carry out major terrorist attacks, including the bombing of Jerusalem’s main soccer stadium and the city’s light-rail line. The ring also sought to kidnap Israelis domestically and abroad, carry out roadside attacks, storm Jewish villages, and plant car bombs in Israeli cities.
Hizbullah Caught Setting Up Terror Network In The West Bank
The Iranian-backed Hizbullah organization was caught attempting to establish a terrorist network of several cells in the West Bank with the goal of orchestrating attacks against Jews in that territory and beyond.
The Palestinian Authority arrested and interrogated some members of the network, which was comprised of gunmen from Fatah’s Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade seeking to make additional money from Hizbullah, PA security sources said.
The security sources said Hizbullah sought to pay the chief of each terror cell $400 per month while each regular member would receive $100 per month in salary.
The terrorists-for-hire would get bonus funds for each attack successfully orchestrated, with the amount depending on the size and importance of the attack and the number of Jewish casualties, the sources said.
The terrorist network, the sources said, was the initiative of Qais Obeid, an Israeli Arab and a grandson of former Knesset member Diyab Obeid. Obeid defected to Lebanon and became a senior officer for Hizbullah. Qais Obeid was behind the 2000 kidnapping of Israeli businessman Elchanan Tannenbaum, who was held by Hizbullah until a prisoner swap with Israel in January 2004.
The PA sources said some members of Obeid’s new terrorist network were arrested while others were briefly detained and received stern warnings from the PA against any further contact with Hizbullah.