Hamas has issued a statement that it was “prepared for a confrontation with Israel” and for the end of the cease-fire with Israel. Hamas’ Iz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades threatened to “turn the cease-fire tables on the heads of the Zionists.”

Abu Obeida, the nom de guerre of a spokesman for the military wing, threatened that Hamas would “retaliate fiercely” should Israel resume its targeted-killings policy, as some defense officials have said were advisable after the cease-fire.

Palestinian Authority Accuses Hamas Of Staging Power Outages
On Tuesday, Palestinian Authority (PA) officials in Ramallah accused Hamas of staging the latest blackouts in the Gaza Strip in a bid to win sympathy and incite the Palestinian public against Israel.

Hamas has been forcing power supplies to some areas of Gaza so as to create the impression that the outage was due to a lack of fuel caused by the ongoing closure of the border crossings.

According to the PA’s claim, there is no shortage of basic goods, medicine and fuel in the Gaza Strip, largely thanks to the underground tunnels along the border with Egypt.

“There’s no shortage of fuel in the Gaza Strip, and the electricity company is continuing to function normally,” a PA official said. “Our people in the Gaza Strip have told us that the blackouts are all staged as part of the Hamas propaganda.” 

Another PA official said Hamas’ deception reached its peak last January when its legislators held a meeting in a darkened hall of the Palestinian Legislative Council – while light could be seen coming in through the curtained windows.

The PA official accused al-Jazeera of serving as a platform for Hamas propaganda by airing staged footage of children and women during candlelight protests in the streets of Gaza City.

“There’s enough fuel in the Gaza Strip,” he said. “Even when Israel reduces the fuel supplies, Hamas continues to smuggle… thousands of [gallons] through the underground tunnels,” saying also that “Hamas has seized more than [58,118 gallons] of fuel that was intended for generators belonging to our company.”

The Fatah-controlled Pal-Press Web site quoted a senior official in the Gaza Electricity Company last Thursday as having said Hamas has been stealing fuel supplies intended for the power grid.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com.

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David Bedein
David Bedein
David Bedein is an MSW community organizer and an investigative journalist.   In 1987, Bedein established the Israel Resource News Agency at Beit Agron to accompany foreign journalists in their coverage of Israel, to balance the media lobbies established by the PLO and their allies.   Mr. Bedein has reported for news outlets such as CNN Radio, Makor Rishon, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, BBC and The Jerusalem Post, For four years, Mr. Bedein acted as the Middle East correspondent for The Philadelphia Bulletin, writing 1,062 articles until the newspaper ceased operation in 2010. Bedein has covered breaking Middle East negotiations in Oslo, Ottawa, Shepherdstown, The Wye Plantation, Annapolis, Geneva, Nicosia, Washington, D.C., London, Bonn, and Vienna. Bedein has overseen investigative studies of the Palestinian Authority, the Expulsion Process from Gush Katif and Samaria, The Peres Center for Peace, Peace Now, The International Center for Economic Cooperation of Yossi Beilin, the ISM, Adalah, and the New Israel Fund.   Since 2005, Bedein has also served as Director of the Center for Near East Policy Research.   A focus of the center's investigations is The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). In that context, Bedein authored Roadblock to Peace: How the UN Perpetuates the Arab-Israeli Conflict - UNRWA Policies Reconsidered, which caps Bedein's 28 years of investigations of UNRWA. The Center for Near East Policy Research has been instrumental in reaching elected officials, decision makers and journalists, commissioning studies, reports, news stories and films. In 2009, the center began decided to produce short movies, in addition to monographs, to film every aspect of UNRWA education in a clear and cogent fashion.   The center has so far produced seven short documentary pieces n UNRWA which have received international acclaim and recognition, showing how which UNRWA promotes anti-Semitism and incitement to violence in their education'   In sum, Bedein has pioneered The UNRWA Reform Initiative, a strategy which calls for donor nations to insist on reasonable reforms of UNRWA. Bedein and his team of experts provide timely briefings to members to legislative bodies world wide, bringing the results of his investigations to donor nations, while demanding reforms based on transparency, refugee resettlement and the demand that terrorists be removed from the UNRWA schools and UNRWA payroll.   Bedein's work can be found at: www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com and www.cfnepr.com. A new site,unrwa-monitor.com, will be launched very soon.

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