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| العربية: علم حماس עברית: דגל חמאס I made this for use on the Hamas article of Wikipedia. Category:Hamas (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Please find attached my article "Hamas in disarray" published by
Jerusalem Report on November 18, 2013.
The article is based on my academic paper previously published by
Perspectives on Terrorism, Volume 7, Issue 5.
In
spite of its evident political weakness and regional isolation Hamas
keeps open the option of renewed fighting against Israel. This is one of
the main reasons of its return to
Iran's (and Hezbollah) embrace, the main providers of military
hardware, training and strategic advice.
This also explains Hamas's recent strengthening of its alliance with the Gaza Salafist groups.
The
strategy of challenging Israel's might in the next military clash
through the expansion of an underground infrastructure of bunkers and
tunnels has been confirmed at the beginning
of October 2013, when the IDF uncovered a massive Hamas attack tunnel
leading from Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, into Israel.
It
is the most well-designed tunnel found by the IDF to date, buried some
20 meters underground. It took Hamas probably a year and a half to
complete, its height allows people to
stand fully upright as they use it. (See at
http://www.jpost.com/National-News/IDF-discovers-Palestinian-terrorist-tunnel-leading-from-Gaza-to-Kibbutz-in-Israel-328584)
The
tunnel was constructed using approximately 24,000 Israeli concrete
slabs which the IDF had permitted into Gaza to ease the crisis in the
civilian construction sector. As a result,
Israel has stopped allowing concrete into Gaza. This shows again that
Hamas's priority is the struggle against Israel and not Gaza's
population basic economic needs.
The
strategic tunnel could be used for a major terrorist attack inside
Israel by possibly several dozen militants or kidnapping soldiers or
civilians for negotiating the release of
the Hamas prisoners in Israeli jails.
[By
the way, the Hamas used in the past underground tunnels to try to
assassinate Mahmoud Abbas, the PA president in June 2007. At the time
The Palestinian Authority released a video
of what it said was the Hamas assassination attempt. See at
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2007/06/2008525125054538883.html]
Hamas
leaders not only boasted about the construction of the tunnels but a
few weeks later Hamas's military wing revealed a unit that specializes
in digging offensive tunnels. An
Al-Jazeera television report aired on the one-year anniversary of
Israel's Operation Pillar of Defense in Gaza showed Hamas operatives
digging a tunnel and preparing infrastructure for launching rockets from
below ground. The tunnel is equipped with electricity,
used to light the facility and power the electric jackhammers used to
dig.
The Hamas operatives described their preparation for the
inevitable next round of hostilities with Israel. They can spend weeks
at a time underground without being detected, one operative explained.
(See at
On
November 11, Hamas held a huge military rally in the Gaza Strip marking
the anniversary of Operation Pillar of Defense. Several thousand
well-equipped fighters from Hamas’ military
wing paraded M75 missile and multiple-rocket launchers. Senior Hamas
official Mahmoud Al-Zahar declared that the Hamas military would “reach
out for all of Palestine.” (See
http://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/diplomacy-defense/131119-israeli-jets-target-terror-targets-in-gaza)
The
discovery of the tunnel and the IDF's operation to destroy it provoked
several incidents in which five Israeli soldiers were wounded and four
Hamas members were killed. Then Israeli
planes attacked two rocket launchers in Gaza in response to the firing
of rockets in the direction of Ashkelon and the firing of mortars at the
Eshkol region.
Mustafa
Ibrahim, from the Independent Commission for Human Rights in Gaza, told
Al Jazeera he had warned Hamas not to rely too much on the tunnels,
because it removed the responsibility
of Israel as an occupying power to ensure all humanitarian needs.
Ibrahim said he fears mounting pressure on the government will result in
Hamas seeking to direct Gazan animosity towards Israel by provoking an
escalation in violence. "It's a hard choice for
Hamas but if this crisis continues, the only solution they will have is
to start a violent crisis in order to solve this one," Ibrahim said.
It
will be interesting to follow the behavior of the Tehran regime towards
Hamas's bellicose strategy on the background of its improved relations
with the West following the recent
Geneva nuclear deal.
Ely Karmon, PhD
Senior Research Scholar
International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) and
The Institute for Policy and Strategy (IPS) at
The Interdisciplinary Center (IDC(
Herzlyia, Israel
Tel.: 972-9-9527277
Cell.: 972-52-2653306
Fax.: 972-9-9513073, 972-9-7716653
E-mail:
ekarmon@idc.ac.il
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