by Nadav Shragai
More than a third of the terrorists freed in exchange for captive soldier Gilad Schalit have gone back to terrorism. Some of them now control Hamas in Gaza, out of Israel's reach, and are working with Iran to execute terrorist attacks and kidnappings.
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Gazans celebrate the
release of over 1,000 Palestinian terrorists with blood
on their hands
in exchange for captive Cpl. Gilad Schalit, November 2011
Photo: AP
There
is no way to gloss over this reality: According to an assessment from a
senior security official, some 420 of the 1,027 terrorists imprisoned
in Israel released as part of exchange deal for captured IDF Cpl. Gilad
Schalit in November 2011 have found their way back into the circle of
terrorism and violence. Some 210 were re-arrested, and 100 were put back
behind bars. Terrorists freed in the Schalit deal have directly or
indirectly been involved in the murder of seven Israelis, including the
three teens abducted in Gush Etzion in June 2014, as well as Rabbi Michael Mark and Baruch Mizrahi.
But the major, aggregate damage, with which
Israel is finding it hard to contend, comes from the freed prisoners
who were deported to or sent back to the Gaza Strip. Now it is becoming
clear that it's easier to handle the ones who went back home to Judea
and Samaria, within Israel's reach, than the terrorists who are across
the border in Gaza.
As if that weren't enough, a group of the
prisoners released in the Schalit deal have seized control of Hamas in
Gaza. The group has established a mechanism whose purpose, at least for
now, is to keep things quiet in Gaza to give them a chance to rebuild
themselves, while hatching plans for terrorist attacks in Judea and
Samaria, all while continuing to shake up the regime of Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
According to reports out of the PA security
establishment, this mechanism has a well-ordered hierarchy: The man in
charge of terrorist attacks in Judea and Samaria is Maher Obeid, an
associate of Saleh Arouri, who replaced him as commander of West Bank
activity from abroad. Obeid and Arouri are believed to be in London.
Obeid, who used to be charged with raising funds for Hamas and recently
represented the group in its contact with Iran, denies these reports.
It's possible he simply fears for his life.
Below him are three major figures from the
Schalit prisoner release, each one of which oversees a different part of
the West Bank. Abdel Rahman Ranimat, originally from the Bethlehem
area, who was involved in terrorist attacks that claimed Israeli lives
(including the murder of IDF soldier Sharon Edri), was put in charge of
the region that includes Bethlehem, Hebron and Jericho. Abdullah Arar,
who was involved in the abduction and murder of Sasson Nuriel in 2005,
was made responsible for the Jerusalem and Ramallah region; and the
northern West Bank was assigned to Forsan Khalifa. Dozens of the
attempted terrorist attacks thwarted over the past year were initiated
by this mechanism and by other terrorists freed in exchange for Schalit.
The new terrorist focus
Schalit deal terrorists are even involved
in the constant smaller-scale terrorist attacks that do not entail
firearms or bombings (stabbings, car rammings, and Molotov cocktails)
that Israeli security officials refer to collectively as "cold
terrorism." December 2017 saw a sharp spike in the number of such
attacks: 249, compared to 84 in November 2017. The majority of the
attacks, 219, involved Molotov cocktails, while the rest were employed
explosive devices, shootings, and stabbings. A total of 178 of these
attacks took place in Judea and Samaria and another 56 were carried out
in east Jerusalem. It was a prisoner traded for Schalit who led the
popular "struggle" in the Dura area in the South Hebron Hills, which
used mostly Molotov cocktails and rocks, until he was imprisoned again.
Head of the Shin Bet security agency Nadav
Argaman said in a report to government ministers that Hamas in Gaza is
not alone, and that the group coordinated with Hamas operatives
elsewhere in the world and promotes what he calls "dozens of
inter-regional handler axes" designed to carry out major terrorist
attacks in the West Bank and inside the Green Line. Various signs
indicate that the attack in which Rabbi Raziel Shevach
from the Samaria outpost of Havat Gilad was murdered can be directly or
indirectly traced back to one of the "handler axes" that Argaman
mentioned. This attack was another one that bore signs of being directed
from the outside. The West Bank is now the scene of terrorist attacks
commanded from Gaza, Lebanon, or other countries in the region. Iran and
Hezbollah are also key players in this joint terrorist front.
There is considerable evidence that
terrorist actors from different regions are cooperating to execute
attacks in Judea and Samaria and inside the Green Line. Argaman's report
to the ministers concealed more than it revealed. Arab sources are more
generous with information and reflect an attempt to coalesce satellite
terrorist elements into a single lever of terrorism. According to the
Middle East Media Research Institute, Lebanon's Daily Star newspaper,
identified with Hezbollah, recently reported an attempt by Hezbollah,
Hamas, an unknown branch of an Iraqi militia, and five other unnamed
armed groups from Gaza and the West Bank to establish a joint venture
that would serve as a sort of "war room" to coordinate their activities.
Iran openly has a finger in this particular
pie. Senior Iranian officials, starting with Iranian President Hassan
Rouhani and Quds Force commander Maj. Gen. Ghasem Soleimani, have made
it clear to senior Hamas members and other Palestinian factions that
Iran is placing all its capabilities at their disposal. Recently,
high-ranking officials in Tehran and heads of Hamas in Gaza have been
meeting more frequently. However, Iran is also acting on its own, and
not only through agents. The Shin Bet recently exposed an Iranian
terrorist network in the West Bank that had been recruited and handled
directly by Iran's intelligence system.
The man in charge of organizing it was
Muhammad Maharma, a computer science student from Hebron, who was
recruited to the Iranian intelligence by a relative living in South
Africa. Another sign of Iranian attempts to plant a flag in the West
Bank comes from a report in the Al Jarida newspaper, published in
Kuwait, which just reported that Israel and the Americans had struck a
deal to assassinate Soleimani. In another article, Al Jarida reported
that Soleimani had underscored to Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders that
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei saw great importance in
arming the West Bank. That same report, brought to Israel's attention by
journalist Yoni Ben-Menachem, a researcher at the Jerusalem Center for
Public Affairs, said that Soleimani had met with weapons smugglers in
Syria and Lebanon and asked them to find ways to send "high-quality"
weapons to the Palestinians in the West Bank.
At the same time, the Iranian news agency
Tasnim reported that Soleimani was in contact with Hamas and the Islamic
Jihad. While Yahya Sinwar, head of Hamas in Gaza, told the
Hezbollah-affiliated TV channel Al Mayadeen that Soleimani had promised
to provide assistance to Hamas' military wing and to the Islamic Jihad.
Along with drawing closer to Egypt and the
renewed fight against the Islamic State, which were designed to give the
Gaza Strip a chance to get back on its economic feet, Hamas in Gaza is
also strengthening its ties to Iran and its other allies in the region –
first and foremost, Hezbollah. Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman
addressed this publicly this week, saying that "Gaza is in very bad
straits and wants to create terrorist attacks on its own, so it is
trying to open new areas, mostly in southern Lebanon."
Argaman also touched on the issue when he
briefed the ministers on what is happening in the region. He talks about
attempts to create an Iranian-sponsored Hamas outpost in Lebanon and
about Hamas in Gaza forming stronger strategic ties with the Shiite
axis, led by Iran. Reports are also coming out of Lebanon that Hamas is
trying to resume its activity in Palestinian refugee camps there, in the
spirit of the words of Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar, who for quite
some time has been urging the Syrian and Lebanese regimes to allow Hamas
to set up military cells in the camps.
From prison to power
The main architect of the Gaza-Lebanon-Iran
axis, who is also responsible for constant attempts to carry out
terrorist attacks in Judea and Samaria, is Saleh Arouri. Officials in
Israel now admit it was a mistake to free him and let him cross the
border. Arouri, currently second-in-command of Hamas' political wing,
was released from prison in 2007, and when it appeared that he has
returned to terrorism, was placed under administrative detention. He was
freed again in 2010, with the assent of the Shin Bet, on the condition
that he leave Israel. Eventually, he settled in Turkey.
Under the protection of Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Arouri spent a few years there as head of the
Hamas command abroad, directing terrorist activity in Judea and Samaria.
After teens Naftali Fraenkel, Gil-ad Shaer and Eyal Yifrach were kidnapped and murdered
in June 2014, Arouri even admitted publicly that Hamas was responsible
for the abduction and praised the attack. Combined Israeli and American
pressure on Turkey resulted in Arouri being sent to Qatar, and then from
Qatar to Lebanon, where he is now working to bolster Hamas'
coordination with Hezbollah and Iran.
A triumvirate of Schalit-deal terrorists –
Sinwar, Tawfiq Abu Naim and Zuhair Jabarin, as well as Arouri and the
three regional commanders – now controls Gaza. According to reports from
the Palestinian Authority, they are working to carry out attacks in
various parts of the West Bank and their main goal is another abduction
of an Israeli. Sinwar, Abu Naim and Jabarin were all released from
prison in Israel before their sentences were up. These three, along with
some of their comrades, star in a popular video clip that Hamas
released titled "From prison to power," in which they express their
commitment to carrying out another abduction, and they are trying their
best.
Hussam Badaran was also freed from prison
under the Schalit deal and deported to Qatar. He oversaw an attempt by
Hamas operatives from Hebron to commit terrorist kidnappings of Israeli
civilians or soldiers. That attempt went as far as having a safe house
ready. Hashem Abdel Kader Ibrahim Hijaz, who had been sentenced to 10
life sentences but was freed in the Schalit deal, tried to launch
terrorist abductions near Ramallah, using a local Hamas operative. Mazen
Fuqaha, another leader of Hamas' West Bank command who was killed in
Gaza last March, also devoted his energy to preparing a massive
abduction. Fuqha was responsible for the suicide bus bombing at the
Meron junction in 2002 that killed nine people. He served only nine
years of the nine life sentences he was assigned before being released
in exchange for Schalit.
On high alert
The Hamas cell that planned a series of
terrorist attacks to be launched at the train station in Binyamina, the
central synagogue in Zikhron Yaakov and the bus station in Wadi Ara, was
also planning a kidnapping. The cell, which consisted of two residents
of the village of Bani Naim near Hebron and an Israeli Arab from Wadi
Ara, was funded by a group of terrorists freed in the Schalit deal. They
kept in touch via Facebook.
The kidnapping was planned for a
hitchhiking post near Afula. Since the Schalit deal that freed over
1,000 terrorists, the Shin Bet has thwarted dozens of abductions. The
IDF and the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria constantly update
their safety rules and keep as alert and aware as possible. Security
officials say that the current Hamas leadership is focused on its goal.
Sinwar, back in the day, was condemned to four life sentences for
planning terrorist attacks and to abduct soldiers. Even while behind
bars, he was involved in plotting the kidnapping of the late IDF soldier
Nahshon Waxman.
Sinwar's younger brother was involved in
kidnapping Gilad Schalit in a cross-border raid in June 2006. Sinwar's
deputy, Khalil al-Hayya, has declared many times that "the Palestinians
intend to kidnap soldiers and settlers at any time, and have the right
to do so."
Ruhi Mushtaha, another senior figure in
Hamas who is close to Sinwar, had been assigned seven life sentences for
his involvement in the Waxman abduction, was also released in the
Schalit deal. Mushtaha was involved in assembling the list of prisoners
Hamas wanted to be released. Since Operation Protective Edge in the
summer of 2014, he has also been in charge of the Hamas prisoners
portfolio.
Mushtaha often speaks about the obligation
to kidnap Israeli soldiers in order to free Palestinian prisoners.
Badaran, a senior leader of Hamas in Gaza, played a role in planning
several suicide bombings that killed dozens of Israelis. After he was
freed as part of the Schalit deal, he gave a speech in the name of the
"freed prisoners" who had arrived in Gaza in which he promised "not to
forget those who remain in prison." Jabarin, who was also freed in the
Schalit deal and a senior figure in Hamas-Gaza, has made similar
statements.
Sinwar and Abu Naim served time together in
a prison in Ashkelon, along with Mohammad al-Sharatha, a member of the
terrorist cell that kidnapped and murdered IDF soldiers Avi Sasportas
and Ilan Saadon in two separate abductions in 1989. The three tried to
escape together but failed. Sharatha was yet another terrorist freed in
the Schalit deal. He returned to Gaza and made it clear that he had no
remorse for his deeds. Now Sinwar and his friends are thinking up plans
for another abduction. Their fingerprints are all over many of the
attacks that Israel luckily managed to thwart this past year.
Nadav Shragai
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/2018/01/26/warning-abductions-planned/
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