Palestinians cross the Israeli army’s Hawara Checkpoint near the West Bank city of Nablus yesterday. Israeli officials from the Military Intelligence Branch office are warning that Hamas is establishing a mini-army in the Gaza Strip. Photo by Kevin Frayer/Associated Press.

Israeli Military Intelligence Branch warns that Hamas is establishing a mini-army in the Gaza Strip and that within a year Israel will face dangers and threats which Israel has not yet known.

“Hamas is in contact with elements close to Syria and Iran and is working on operational plans,” IDF Intelligence Research Department Director Brig. Gen. Yossi Baidatz. reported to the Israeli Knesset Parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. He added: “If this situation continues, we will have to think about how the theater will look a year from now.”

“Hamas activists are working on operational plans, digging tunnels, constructing blast-proof rooms, and are working with plans from the Hezbollah print-shop,” he said. “This ground infrastructure will enable them to engage in sniping, continuous fire, planting of bombs and other activities, with greater effectiveness.

A year from now the threat will be significantly greater than today, because Hamas is using the current lull to build up its forces.

Brig. Baidatz added that Hamas is interested in continued quiet: “Hamas is deriving benefit from the relaxation itself. It has gained a breathing space which it is using to strengthen itself. Hamas is interested in extension of the calm to Judea and Samaria.”

Brig. Gen. Sami Turjeman, director of the Operations Department at the Israeli Army General Staff, warned: “In a few months’ time we will be faced in the Gaza Strip with a military capability which we have not known up till now, especially in the area of anti-tank rockets. Hamas personnel have been training in a wide range of skills: sniping, explosives, installing blast-proof walls and roofs, and fortifications. What is being set up there is nothing less than a professional fighting force, and what is taking shape is a comprehensive concept with semi-military capabilities which we have not encountered before.”

Jordan And The Palestinians

And there are signs of rapprochement between Jordan and Hamas.

Jordanian Prime Minister Dr. Marouf al-Bakhit on Monday called Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and extended to him an official invitation to visit Jordan – without yet setting a date.

Palestinian Authority Spokesman Dr. Ghazi Hamad said that Haniyeh is expected to go to Amman next week and that PA Chairman Abu Mazen is also expected to attend the meeting. “The prime minister of Jordan sent an official invitation from His Majesty King Abdullah to Prime Minister Haniyeh to visit Jordan and meet with Abu Mazen to discuss recent developments and points of discord,” said Hamad. “Prime Minister Haniyeh accepted the invitation with pleasure. We have begun arrangements to set a date,” he said.

This is an unusual step by Amman in its relations with Hamas, since up until now, Jordan did not allow Hamas members to go to the kingdom and just a month ago prevented Haniyeh from entering the capital of Jordan. The Jordanians took this step after a few months earlier a Hamas terror cell was arrested in Jordan that was planning terror attacks.

©The Bulletin 2006

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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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