Hamas' secretive military wing has emerged from hiding, revealing the names of seven top commanders and detailing how they masterminded attacks on Israelis. The move is part of an increasingly fierce competition between resistance movements and the Palestinian Authority over who will get credit for Israel's pullout from Gaza. On its website, the Hamas military wing, Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, laid bare its command structure for the first time, posting names of seven top operatives, along with photos, biographies and interviews. Hamas is also printing tens of thousands of flyers with the content of the website, to be distributed in coming days in mosques and at rallies.The seven names were known to some in Gaza, but on Saturday marked the first time Hamas itself presented them in public, along with the commanders' job titles. At the top of the pyramid was Muhammad Daif, who has been No 1 on Israel's wanted list for years, and has survived three attempts by Israel to kill him. In comments posted on the website, Daif warned that Hamas would use force if Palestinian police tried to disarm or arrest members of the group. "We will respond to any attack, whether from the authority or from the Israelis," Daif was quoted as saying. "We will respond strongly to any attack on us." Daif also said that Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades would not disband, and instead continue to develop weapons, including rockets. But his comments on whether the group would stick to an informal ceasefire with Israel, particularly after Israel's Gaza pullout, were evasive. He said the group's first attack, in January 1992, was the killing of a rabbi in the Israeli settlement of Kfar Darom in Gaza. "He was shot by our brothers with a 7mm pistol ... which was the only pistol that we had," Daif was quoted as saying. In 1995, after a few failures, Hamas built its first crude bombs, followed a few years later by rockets. He said the most effective weapon were scores of bombings Hamas set off in Israel from the mid-1990s. Hundreds of Israelis, including many civilians, were killed in such bombings.
The other senior operatives named on the website were: Ahmad Jaberi, a Daif deputy; Raid Said, commander of Gaza City; Ahmad al-Ghandur, commander of northern Gaza; Muhammad Abu Shamala, commander of southern Gaza; Marwan Isa, a Daif deputy; and Muhammad al-Sanwar, commander of the town of Khan Yunus. Three of the seven biographies were accompanied by headshots, while three others posed with masks. No picture accompanied the entry of the shadowy Daif. The operatives described in some detail how they planned attacks. Isa, for example, said Hamas operatives would watch an Israeli settlement targeted for attack for days and weeks. He said he always had more volunteers for resistance missions than he could dispatch, and that dozens of attacks were called off at the last minute for fear of failure. Boaz Ganor, an Israeli counter-terrorism expert, said Izz al-Din al-Qassam was not revealing secrets. "They published what they assume the Israeli intelligence knows, to get credit from the Palestinian public," he said.