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The director of the investigative department of the IDF’s Intelligence Branch, Brig. Gen. Yossi Baidetz,told the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that the calm allows the leaders of the Palestinian organizations’ military wings to meet with no fear that we will harm them.
The high-ranking officer said that Hamas had an interest in the calm. “The pressures we applied have not harmed the strengthening of Hamas or smuggling to the Gaza Strip. Hamas is seeking to create a separation between a unity government in the Palestinian Authority, rocket fire and the case of Gilad Shalit. They have not been under pressure to establish a unity government because they have proof that those who persist can succeed in the same manner.”
Brig. Gen. Baidetz also said: “Hamas has spotted weak points in Israel. It watches television and reads newspapers. The Sderot effect resulted from the Kassam rocket fire.”
The IDF Intelligence Branch official also reported that Israel hasnoticed cracks in the economic boycott and that money is being smuggled into the Gaza Strip, including the transfer of USD 30 million from Kuwait. He said that the arms smuggling to the Gaza Strip is continuing and that the deployment of Palestinian troops disrupted the system somewhat, but not significantly.
Regarding Judea and Samaria, Brig. Gen. Baidetz said that the terrorist groups are constantly arranging suicide attacks in Israel. He added that because of the cease-fire, the main center of terrorist activity has moved to Judea and Samaria. “They try to perpetrate terror attacks all the time. They prepare car bombs. There was also an intention to establish a laboratory to manufacture high trajectory fire weapons, but our troops discovered it,” he said. He remarked that the terrorist organizations have managed to smuggle between 70 and 80 long-range rockets capable of reaching up to 20 kilometers into the Gaza Strip.
Source: http://www.theeveningbulletin.com/site/printerFriendly.cfm?brd=2737&dept_id=576361&newsid=17558623
