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Recent Appearances...

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Hamas has an Islamic Jihad problem in the Gaza Strip

2022-08-07

See here for links to all of today’s posts on Operation Breaking Dawn.

[JPost] Sometimes, your "deniable" liability becomes your liability. Curb your dog
Regardless of how and when the current round of fighting ends, it’s clear that the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad organization has managed to reassert its status as the second largest and most influential terror group in the Gaza Strip.

It’s also obvious that Islamic Jihad has become a major threat not only to Israel, but to Hamas as well. Similarly, it has also become a real threat to the Palestinian Authority, especially in the northern West Bank.

In the past several years, Islamic Jihad has been openly challenging Hamas by operating as a state-within-a-state in the Gaza Strip. Hamas leaders have always displayed intolerance towards rival groups in the coastal enclave.

Even more disturbing for Hamas is the fact that a number of other armed groups have joined Islamic Jihad in firing rockets at Israel in the past 24 hours. These groups are affiliated with Fatah, Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Popular Resistance Committees and Nasser Salah a-Din Brigades.

The fighting in the Gaza Strip shows that Hamas is no longer the sole decision-maker on matters related to military confrontations with Israel. It further illustrates that Islamic Jihad is capable of acting as an independent military force without having to coordinate with, or receive permission from, Hamas.

A statement published by the armed wing of Islamic Jihad on Saturday boasted that the terrorist groups were united in confronting the Israeli "aggression" on the Gaza Strip.

The statement, nonetheless, does not seem to reflect the reality on the ground, namely that Hamas has still not joined Islamic Jihad and its allies in the current round of fighting.

By Saturday afternoon, there was still no indication that Hamas was keen on joining the fighting. Statements issued by Hamas leaders offered nothing but lip service to Islamic Jihad and the other terrorist groups.

A terse statement by Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said that he "affirmed during contacts with the Egyptian intelligence heads that what happened in the Gaza Strip is the responsibility of the occupation state alone." Haniyeh, in addition, "stressed the need to stop the bombing targeting the Gaza Strip."

Another statement released by Hamas spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum also failed to offer any hint that his group was planning to join the fighting. "The resistance, with all its military arms and factions, is united in this battle, will defend our people in the Gaza Strip with everything it possesses, and will defeat the occupation as it defeated it in all the battles," said Barhoum.

At this stage, it’s obvious that Hamas does not want Islamic Jihad to drag it into another all-out confrontation with Israel. Hamas’s biggest fear is that another war could trigger a revolt against its regime by the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, who paid a heavy price during last year’s military confrontation with Israel.

Hamas is now hoping that Egypt and Qatar will be able to achieve a new ceasefire between Israel and Islamic jihad. Although it is doing its utmost not to get involved in the fighting, Hamas is apparently worried that if the fighting escalates and the number of casualties rises in the Gaza Strip, it will no longer be able to continue sitting on the fence.

In the past, Hamas found itself in the same position that Islamic Jihad is in now, when it created a state-within-a-state under the rule of the Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Authority’s failure to rein in Hamas in the 1990s ultimately saw the Islamists seize control of the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2007 after toppling the Palestinian Authority.

Paradoxically, Israel’s military strikes against Islamic Jihad serve the interests of Hamas by undermining the organization that poses a threat to its rule over the Gaza Strip. But Hamas’s failure to assist Islamic Jihad could also prove to be counterproductive, especially in wake of increased voices criticizing the rulers of the Gaza Strip for their neutral stance.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Gaza: Hamas, Islamic Jihad vow to step up rockets against Israel

2021-05-12

[JPost]"Please beat our asses back til the millennia, now"
Senior leaders of Hamas and PIJ, meanwhile, have reportedly gone into hiding out of fear of being targeted by Israel.

Defiant Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad officials on Tuesday threatened to step up their attacks on Israel after some of their senior military commanders were killed in Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip.In separate statements, the two terrorist groups said they would continue their rocket attacks until Israel "halts its aggression" on the Palestinians in Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. They also accused Israel of targeting innocent civilians, including children.

By Tuesday evening, only two groups, PIJ and Humat al-Aqsa, had officially acknowledged the death of their members. Unconfirmed reports said at least four senior Hamas members were killed in Tuesday’s attacks by Israel.

Senior leaders of Hamas and PIJ, meanwhile, have gone into hiding out of fear of being targeted by Israel, according to sources in the Gaza Strip.

"Hamas has not abandoned the equation that says bombings will be met with bombings," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said. "The brave Palestinian resistance, at the forefront of which is the Qassam Brigades, has taken upon itself the responsibility to protect our Palestinian people and to respond strongly and directly to the occupation’s violations and crimes against our people in Jerusalem and worshipers in the blessed al-Aqsa Mosque, as well as the targeting of civilians and children."

Israel decided to "transfer the battle to the Gaza Strip after it failed to break the will and determination of the resistance that defends the people and protects their interests," he said.

Hamas and other Gaza-based factions will "continue to repel the [Israeli] aggression with full force, notwithstanding the sacrifices," Barhoum said.

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Africa North

Egypt to relay Israeli ‘security messages’ to Hamas

2020-10-26

[Jpost] Egyptian intelligence officials are set to relay several messages from Israel to Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,, some of them related to a possible prisoner exchange and efforts by the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
-based group to acquire advanced types of weapons, London-based pan-Arab The New Arab media outlet reported Sunday.

Israel had delivered "security messages" to the Egyptians so that they could raise them with Hamas leaders, who headed to Cairo on Sunday, the report said, quoting unnamed Egyptian sources.

"The Israeli side informed Egypt of intelligence information regarding efforts by Hamas’s military wing, Izz al-Din [Izzadin] al-Qassam Brigades, to introduce advanced types of weapons to the Gaza Strip that would change the balance of power," it said.

Israel had informed the Egyptians that Hamas was trying to develop an air-defense system "that would change the situation in the next confrontations with Israel," the report said.

Hamas on Sunday said two of its bigwigs in the Gaza Strip, Khalil al-Hayya and Rouhi Mushtaha, headed to Cairo through the Rafah border crossing for talks with Egyptian officials on the situation in the Gaza Strip and on latest political developments in the region.

Two other Hamas leaders, Saleh Arouri and Izzat al-Risheq, were also scheduled to arrive in Cairo within hours to join the talks with Egyptian intelligence officials.

The talks would deal with efforts to resolve the ongoing dispute between Hamas and the Paleostinian ruling Fatah faction, Hamas said in a statement.

The Hamas leaders’ visit to Cairo is expected to ease tensions between the two sides, Paleostinian sources said. Relations between Hamas and Egypt have been strained because of Hamas’s close ties with ~~The Sick Man of Europe~~ Turkey
<del>The Sick Man of Europe</del> Turkey

<del>The Sick Man of Europe</del> Turkey

...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund...
, Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
and Iran, the sources added.

Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesperson in the Gaza Strip, said the talks with the Egyptian officials would focus on ways of boosting bilateral relations and achieving Paleostinian "national unity." They also would deal with the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip," he said.

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Africa North

Hamas leader Sinwar heads to Egypt to discuss truce with Israel

2019-05-03

[IsraelTimes] Gazoo terror group turns to Egyptian intel chief to mediate return to ceasefire, after a day of rising tensions following arson balloon attacks.

A Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", delegation led by the group’s Gazoo chief Yahya Sinwar left the enclave for Cairo on Thursday for talks with Egyptian officials on a truce with Israel, Hamas officials said.

Egypt has long been the broker between Israel and the terror group that runs Gazoo.

In November it brokered a fragile truce agreement whereby Israel eased its blockade of the Gazoo Strip in exchange for calm.

That agreement has appeared to be under stress in recent days, with Paleostinians launching arson balloons and rockets into Israel and Israeli warplanes striking Hamas targets.
In retaliation. Kinda forgot that part, hmmm?
Hamas has said the incendiary balloons were a message to Israel not to hold up the transfer of millions of dollars in Qatar

...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
i aid funds to the cash-strapped Hamas government in Gazoo.

Hamas front man Fawzi Barhoum said Sinwar "left Gazoo for Cairo at the invitation of the head of the Egyptian intelligence service, Major General Abbas Kamel."

The visit was aimed at discussing "bilateral relations and ways to lessen the suffering of our people," he said in a statement.

A Hamas official said the truce agreement would be discussed.

Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
, a Hamas-allied group backed by Iran, said its head will also attend the meetings.

Israel’s air force carried out air raids early Thursday morning on "a number of terror targets in a Hamas military compound in the northern Gazoo Strip," a military statement said.

It said they were in response to the launching of incendiary and explosive balloons from Gazoo into Israel.

Paleostinian Lions of Islam responded by launching two rockets into southern Israel. The projectiles fell in an open area, and no injuries were reported.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Abbas announces appointment of longtime adviser Shtayyeh as PM

2019-03-11

[IsraelTimes] Choice of peace negotiator and British-educated economist is seen as further deepening rift with Hamas, the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,.

But doing or not doing anything else would have the same effect, so kowtowing to Hamas demands is pointless.

Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas

... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
appointed longtime ally Mohammad Shtayyeh as prime minister on Sunday, a bigwig said, in a move seen as part of efforts to further isolate Hamas.

Abbas asked Shtayyeh, a member of the central committee of the Paleostinian president’s Fatah party, to form a new government, Fatah vice president Mahmoud al-Aloul told AFP.

Official Paleostinian news agency WAFA also reported the move.

On Thursday, bigwigs said the central committee of Fatah had backed Shtayyeh to take over the post during a meeting earlier in the week.

Shtayyeh, a British-educated economist, is a top official in Abbas’s Fatah movement. He is a former peace negotiator and a strong proponent of a two-state solution with Israel. He also is a strong critic of the Islamist terror group Hamas, which seized control of the Gazoo Strip from Fatah forces in 2007.

The Hamas takeover has left the Paleostinians torn between rival governments in Gazoo and the West Bank, where Abbas’s Paleostinian Authority administers autonomous areas. Repeated attempts at reconciliation have failed.

Shtayyeh will succeed Rami Hamdallah, who had overseen a unity government formed nearly five years ago with the goal of reaching a reconciliation deal with Hamas.

Those attempts made little headway, and collapsed a year ago when Hamdallah’s motorcade was almost struck by a roadside kaboom in Gazoo.

Hamas on Sunday said the appointment reflected "Abbas’s unilateralism and monopoly of power."

"Hamas stresses that it does not recognize this separatist government because it was formed without national consensus," front man Fawzi Barhoum said in a statement.

Hamdallah announced his resignation in January after years of failure in reconciliation efforts. Shtayyeh is now expected to appoint a new cabinet of Fatah supporters.

Shtayyeh, born in 1958, has a PhD in economic development from the University of Sussex, according to his website. He has held a number of senior positions, including Public Works minister and as a past peace negotiator with Israel. He currently is head of the Paleostinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction, a body that works with international donors on economic development projects in the Paleostinian areas.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Abbas accepts Hamdallah’s resignation, asks government to stay on for transition

2019-01-30

[IsraelTimes] PA president reportedly set to begin consultations to name new ministers from PLO, ending unity bid with Hamas, the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,.

Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas

... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
accepted the resignation of his prime minister Tuesday, but asked the government to stay on until a new one is formed.

PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah and his government tendered their resignations earlier Tuesday, marking the end of a failed unity bid with rival Hamas.

Abbas accepted the resignations but assigned Hamdallah and his fellow ministers the task of maintaining the PA government’s operations until the formation of a new one, the official PA news site Wafa reported.

The government’s decision to resign came two days after the Fatah Central Committee recommended the formation of a government made up of representatives of factions in the Paleostine Liberation Organization and independent personalities, leaving out Hamas, a terror group that is the de facto ruler of the Gazoo Strip.

Hamas front man Fawzi Barhoum condemned the government’s resignation on Tuesday, saying it was aimed at paving the way for the establishment of "a new separatist government" that serves Abbas and his Fatah party’s interests.

Abbas was set to begin consultations to form a government made up of PLO factions, with the goal of preparing for new legislative elections, Wafa reported. It is not clear who will be tapped as the next prime minister.

Abbas and other PA officials have recently pledged to hold new parliamentary elections in the coming six months, but how that would be possible in the Gazoo Strip is unclear. Hamas has controlled the coastal enclave since ousting the Fatah-dominated PA in 2007 from the territory.

Fatah Central Committee Member Azzam al-Ahmad said on Sunday that the Paleostinians planned to form a new government in response to Hamas not handing over the Gazoo Strip to the PA.

The Paleostinians formed the current PA government in 2014 with the support of Fatah and Hamas. Since its establishment, however, Abbas has carried out at least two cabinet reshuffles without Hamas’s consent.

Fatah and Hamas have been in disputes since 2007, when the terror group forcibly ousted the Fatah-dominated PA from Gazoo.

While the two rival parties have signed multiple agreements to advance reconciliation and bring Gazoo and the West Bank under one government, they have not implemented them.

Hamdallah, a former president of An-Najah University, where he was once an English professor, was expected to return to academic work, according to a Paleostinian official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Fatah trying to drag Gaza into new war with Israel: Warty Nose

2019-01-18

[PRESSTV] A high-ranking leader of the Paleostinian Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, resistance movement has accused the West Bank-based Fatah movement of attempts to provoke the Israeli army to launch a new military campaign against the impoverished Gazoo Strip.

"Fatah-affiliated people are trying to force the Gazoo Strip into a fresh battle with Israel by launching rockets during this sensitive time," Mahmoud al-Zahar said in an exclusive interview with Arabic-language Paleostine Today television network.

Zahar added, "Some of these people are linked to Israel and are commissioned to get on with the task. These people are well-known to us. Fatah stands behind them. We have talked with their field leaders about their dangerous acts. Sometimes, they are locked away
Book 'im, Mahmoud!
The Hamas leader noted that Gazoo-based resistance movements are closely monitoring Israel’s acts of aggression against the coastal enclave, stressing that they would never wait too long to respond to such moves.

Zahar's remarks came after Hamas front man Fawzi Barhoum warned in a statement on Sunday that the movement "will intensify the confrontation with Israel" in the coastal sliver if the Israeli military launches new attacks against the enclave.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Hamas military wing says member dies in ‘weapon-related error’

2019-01-18

[IsraelTimes] Paleostinian terror group fighter killed while ’taking up a position’ in the border area between Israel and Gazoo.

The second in as many days. One more will make a trend.

The Hamas, one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbung millipede, military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, said one of its members died on Thursday as a result of "a weapon-related error."

The Islamist terror group’s armed wing identified the man who died as 21-year-old Ahmad al-Fayoumi.

"He went up to heaven as a martyr... as a result of a weapon-related error while taking up a position in the cracks," the Qassam Brigades said in a statement, using a term to refer to the border region between Israel and the Gazoo Strip.

The Qassam Brigades did not provide details on the "weapon-related error."

Pictures posted on Twitter showed what appeared to be Fayoumi’s remains at a hospital in Gazoo.

On Wednesday, another Qassam Brigades member died. The terror group’s armed wing said 27-year-old Hamdi Hejazi succumbed to wounds he sustained earlier this month "in an accident while taking up a position in the cracks," without elaborating.

In January 2018, then-senior Hamas official Imad al-Alami shot himself in the head "while examining his personal weapon in his home," Fawzi Barhoum, a front man for the terror group, said at the time.

However,
a lie repeated often enough remains a lie...
some experts speculated that a rival Hamas member may have shot Alami. Weeks after the incident, Alami, who was regarded as a hardliner and a backer of Hamas’s ties with Iran, died at a hospital in Gazoo.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Hamas to 'intensify confrontation' if Israeli military attacks besieged Gaza Strip

2019-01-14

[PRESSTV] The Paleostinian resistance movement Hamas, the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®, has held the Tel Aviv regime responsible for the ongoing escalation in the blockaded Gazoo Strip, warning that the movement "will intensify the confrontation with Israel" in the coastal sliver if the Israeli military launches new attacks against the enclave.

"The Israeli occupation [regime] bears the consequences of continuing to commit its follies against peaceful protesters and deliberately killing them in cold blood as well as bombing sites of resistance," Hamas front man Fawzi Barhoum said in a statement on Sunday.

He further noted that the escalation of situation in Gazoo and "playing with fire" will never led to security for Israel and its people.

The statement came after Israeli military aircraft carried out several ~~Arclight~~ airstrike

s against multiple locations across the besieged Gazoo Strip late on Saturday.

Paleostinian Ma'an news agency reported that Israeli warplanes fired at least one missile towards a military site belonging to Hamas east of Gazoo City.

Two other sites were targeted, one in the town of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gazoo Strip, and another in the city of Khan Yunis south of the enclave.

Qatari funds to Gaza likely won't go through this week either after rioting

[Ynet] While there is no official freeze of the Qatar

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Hamas releases statement thanking Iran for ‘~~paying for~~ supporting Gaza return marches’

2018-11-28

[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] In a new demonstration of the rapprochement between Iran and Islamist political group Hamas, a regional Iranian catspaw,, the movement on Tuesday expressed its "thanks" to Tehran for sponsoring victims of the great march of return.

Iran has announced its "adoption" of the families of those killed and maimed in the "return marches" in Gazoo. Hamas front man Fawzi Barhoum said in a statement that the movement "values" and "highly appreciates" Iran's positions and support.

Barhoum, in a series of tweets on Tuesday, called on the Arab and Islamic countries to continue to stand by the Paleostinian people and support them in the face of all challenges.

The return marches, which culminate every Friday, first began on March30. Since then, more than 230 Paleostinians have been killed in Gazoo and about 12,000 have been maimed with varying degrees of serious injuries.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Iran ‘adopts’ families of Gazans killed and wounded in border clashes

2018-11-28

[IsraelTimes] The Gazoo-ruling Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, on Tuesday thanked Iran for its financial "adoption" of the families of Paleostinians killed and maimed during festivities it has been encouraging along the border with Israeli troops.

Hamas front man Fawzi Barhoum said his group "values" and "highly appreciates" Iran’s support, the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya broadcaster reported.

Barhoum’s statement comes after an adviser to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told the Hamas-linked al-Risalah that the decision to "adopt" the families was taken during the Islamic Unity Conference being held in Tehran.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Four killed following massive Israeli airstrikes on Gaza

2018-07-22

[ALMASDARNEWS] Four Paleostinians were killed as the Israeli military carried out ~~Arclight~~ airstrike

s against the Gazoo Strip on Saturday. Three of the Paleostinians were killed in the airstrikes with a fourth shot by Israeli snipers during a protest at the Gazoo border.

According to the Israeli military, over 60 targets were struck, including 15 alleged Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", targets in the northern Gazoo Strip with an additional 25 in Khan Yunis.

According to the Israeli military, the airstrikes were carried out after an Israeli soldier was rubbed out by a Paleostinian sniper along the border. Following the airstrikes, Hamas spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum announced that a ceasefire had been agreed between Israel and Hamas.

The series of protests known as the ’March of Return’ were launched along the Gazoo-Israel border on March 30 to demand the right for people to return to their pre-1948 homes. Since March 30, the Israeli military has killed over 140 Paleostinians and maimed over 16,000.

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