HAMAS USES CONTRACTORS IN WAR AGAINST ISRAEL
TEL AVIV — Hamas, the ruling movement in the Palestinian Authority,
has used contractors to continue the war against Israel.
An Israeli government report asserted that Hamas has employed the
Popular Resistance Committees to maintain missile and other strikes against
Israel from the Gaza Strip. In February 2005, Hamas announced a ceasefire in
the war against Israel.
The government-sponsored Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center
said the appointment of PRC commander Jamal Abu Samhadana as Interior
Ministry director-general pointed to the link between the group and Hamas.
The Israeli organization, part of the Center for Special Studies, a research
arm of the intelligence community, said PRC and Hamas have increasingly
coordinated operations over the last year.
"Hamas and the PRC have cooperated closely since the beginning of the
ongoing violent Palestinian-Israeli confrontation," the report said.
"However, because of the so-called 'lull in the fighting' and Hamas'
terrorism-restraining policy, Hamas has augmented the aid it gives to the
PRC."
The report, released on April 28, cited an interview with the late PRC
leader Yusef Al Qoqa. In an interview before he was killed in a car bombing
in Gaza City on March 31, Al Qoqa said PRC was "fully coordinated" with
Hamas and supported the Islamic movement's operational and political
requirements.
"We receive material aid from Hamas, as do six or seven military
factions which belong to the Fatah movement," Al Qoqa said. "However, that
does not mean that our political or operational decisions are made by Hamas,
but rather the opposite is true — we are completely independent
politically,
militarily and with regard to [decisions made on] the ground."
In late 2005, three PRC insurgents captured by Israel also reported
their link to Hamas. The insurgents said they were helped by Hamas in the
PRC mission to infiltrate from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank.
"During interrogation they said that Hamas had been giving their
organization extensive operational support, including monthly funding, and
providing arms, training and operational instruction," the report said.
The report said PRC has become a "kind of Hamas subcontractor." The
Israeli center — citing the PRC assassination of PA military intelligence
chief Mussa Arafat in 2005 — said Hamas could use PRC against rival
Palestinian insurgency groups.
"The close relations between the two organizations give Hamas a certain
measure of influence, if not complete control, over the PRC," the report
said. "Thus the Hamas government has the capability to restrain the PRC's
terrorist attacks, especially launching rockets and mortar shells at
population centers in the western Negev."
