Hamas

News of Terrorism and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (August 7-13, 2019)

This past week events focused on the fatal stabling attack in Gush Etzion of Dvir Soreq, an IDF soldier and yeshiva student. In the Gaza Strip there were a number of attempts to penetrate into Israeli territory, two of them carried out by armed terrorists. Attempts by Palestinians, some of them armed, to penetrate into Israeli territory have recently become commonplace.
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Spotlight on Iran (July 28 – August 11, 2019)

In late July, the Commander of the Qods Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Qasem Soleimani, visited the Albu Kamal crossing connecting Syria and Iraq and met with commanders of pro-Iranian militias in the region. In the economic sphere, Iran is preparing to participate in the international fair set to be held in Damascus soon. In early August, a delegation of high-ranking commanders of the Iraqi Shi’ite pro-Iranian militia, Harakat al-Nujaba’, visited Iran. Recent reports about the visit of the Hamas delegation to Tehran at the end of July indicate that during the visit, the representatives of Iran and Hamas agreed to expand cooperation between them. These reports indicate that Iran promised Hamas to advocate on its behalf with the Syrian regime, to allow Hamas’ leadership to return to Damascus and improve relations between the Palestinian faction and the Syrian leadership, after the rift emerged between the two sides following the outbreak of the civil war in Syria.
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Using youngsters as a tool for violence near the security fence in the Gaza Strip

The return march in the Gaza Strip on July 26, 2019, was similar in most respects to the previous marches. About 4,500 Palestinians participated, gathering mainly at the five return camps. As usual, the march was accompanied by violent activities near the border fence carried out by several dozen Palestinians, most of them adolescents and children. The violent activities included throwing IEDs, hand grenades and Molotov cocktails at the IDF.
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News of Terrorism and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (July 24 – 30 , 2019)

On July 26, 2019, the return march was held in the Gaza Strip with about 4,500 participants (fewer than in recent weeks). The Israeli security forces exposed an Iranian network that recruited residents if Israel, Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip to Iranian intelligence. The destruction of houses in Wadi al-Hums, near Sur Baher, southeast Jerusalem, led to Mahmoud Abbas announcing that the Palestinian leadership would stop acting in accordance with cooperation agreements signed with Israel.
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Muhammad Sawalha, a senior Hamas operative living in Britain, recently participated in a Hamas delegation to Russia. In an attempt to conceal the presence of a Britain-based senior operative, Hamas did not report his participation.

On July 15, 2019, a Hamas delegation headed by Musa Abu Marzouq, a member of the Hamas political bureau, visited Russia. The delegation met with Mikhail Bogdanov, deputy Russian foreign minister and the Russian presidential representative for the Middle East and Africa. Also a member of the delegation was Muhammad Sawalha, a senior Hamas operative who lives in London, where he collaborates with the Muslim Brotherhood (Britain is the European center of their activities).
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Spotlight on Iran (July 14 – July 28, 2019)

The former commander of Iranian forces in Syria revealed for the first time details from the meeting between the Commander of the Qods Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Qasem Soleimani, and Russian President Putin in the summer of 2015. In mid-July, the Special Adviser on Foreign Affairs to the Chairman of the Majlis, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, paid a visit to Syria and Lebanon and met with senior officials from both countries. On July 22, Iraq’s Prime Minister, Adel Abdul Mahdi, arrived for a visit in Tehran and met with President Rouhani. The spokesman of the Popular Mobilization Units (al-Hashd al-Shaabi), the pro-Iranian Iraqi militias, denied the reports about presence of Iranian forces in the Amerli base in northern Iraq. A senior delegation of Hamas officials, led by the Deputy Head of the Political Bureau of the organization, Saleh al-Arouri, visited Tehran and met high-ranking Iranian officials.
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