Quick Takes: News From Israel You May Have Missed

Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu has secretly issued a stern warning to Hamas that if its rocket campaign continues once he’s in power, he will not hesitate to eliminate the terror group’s leadership in both the Gaza Strip and Syria, WorldNetDaily has learned.

According to both Israeli and Palestinian sources intimately familiar with the threats, Netanyahu last week conveyed a secret message to Hamas through a third Arab party in which he stated he would undoubtedly be Israel’s prime minister. He warned that if Hamas’s Gaza terrorist attacks continue, he may target its top leaders in both Gaza and Syria even if such actions would result in a confrontation with Syria. Hamas’s overall chief, Khaled Meshaal, and other top Hamas leaders, reside openly in Syria.

Responding to the threats, Ahmed Yousef, Hamas’s chief political adviser in Gaza, told this column, “We don’t care what Netanyahu says . We don’t pay any attention to these threatening statements. We are people still living under occupation. We have the right to defend ourselves.”

Netanyahu’s warning is particularly bold, since Hamas’s leadership in Syria is protected by the Damascus regime. Israel traditionally shies away from threatening attacks on Syrian soil.

Hundreds of Muslim fighters from around the world are receiving military training in the Egyptian Sinai desert where they are waiting to enter the Gaza Strip, according to a senior terrorist interviewed by this column who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“These fighters have money, weapons. They are waiting to enter Gaza and are receiving training in the Sinai. The thing that is preventing them from coming in is an agreement on the borders,” said the terrorist, a top member of the Popular Resistance Committees, a Hamas-allied group responsible for a large number of recent attacks against Israel.

Israel, Egypt and Hamas are brokering a border agreement that would place international monitors along the Egypt-Gaza border crossings, which are currently almost entirely shut down. Previously, such monitors failed to stop terrorists from crossing into and out of Gaza. The monitors also fled their duties multiple times and left Gaza entirely after Hamas seized control of the area.

The terrorist also claimed the Jordanian border was a “weak point” where his group could launch attacks against Israel.

“We are ready to give orders to hundreds of Arab fighters in Jordan to start launching attacks at the Israeli border. For sure Gaza will not be the only front. Six hundred and fifty kilometers of Israeli-Jordanian borders are a good field to launch attacks,” he said.

His statement concerning the development of a terrorist apparatus along the Jordanian-Israeli border could not be immediately verified.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and top members of his Fatah party have been strongly lobbying Israel behind the scenes to continue its offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Informed diplomats in Jerusalem told WND that Abbas and other top PA officials are concerned the Israel Defense Forces did not mount a strong enough campaign against their Hamas rivals, who in 2007 seized complete control of the Gaza Strip from Abbas’s U.S.-backed Fatah forces.

Last Sunday, while Hamas signaled a willingness to enter a cease-fire with Israel, members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Fatah’s declared military wing, took responsibility for a barrage of five rockets and five mortars fired from the Gaza Strip that day.

Abbas publicly complained that the continuing rocket attacks – which he blamed on Hamas – only provided Israel with an excuse to attack the coastal territory, even while his own group boasted of responsibility for the attacks.

More tales are emerging regarding Hamas’s utilization of civilians during Israel’s 22-day war against the terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip, including accounts from Gaza residents who accuse Hamas of using them as human shields.

Last week, the Sydney Morning Herald interviewed Muhammad Shriteh, a Gaza-based ambulance driver, who complained that Hamas would “lure the ambulances into the heart of a battle to transport fighters to safety.”

The Italian daily Corriere della Sera published an article quoting Gaza residents accusing Hamas of shooting from their homes and then preventing the residents from fleeing when Israel returned fire.

Meanwhile, this column has learned that Hamas recently appropriated dozens of apartments within civilian complexes where it currently bases its new government infrastructure, including Hamas’s interior ministry; court system; ministry of transportation, education, police, and health services; and scores of other official institutions.

Aaron Klein is Jerusalem bureau chief for  WorldNetDaily.com. He appears throughout the week on leading U.S. radio programs and is the author of the book “Schmoozing with Terrorists.”