Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal instructed the terror group's sleeper cells
in the West Bank to prepare themselves for armed struggle to take
control of the Palestinian territory, The Sunday Times reported.
According
to the report, citing the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and the
Aman military intelligence service, Hamas, at the behest of Iran, was
preparing to seize power in the West Bank as it did in Gaza in a 2007
civil war.
The Sunday Times
claimed that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had been warned by
Israeli intelligence services of Hamas's possible usurpation of power,
and quoted what it described as a close Netanyahu associate as saying:
“Bibi [Netanyahu] understands the geopolitical changes in the Middle
East. No way would [he] give up an inch of the West Bank - he is
convinced that the intelligence assessment about a Muslim Brotherhood
[Hamas] takeover is solid.”
The Sunday Times
also alleged that relations between Hamas and Iran were on the upswing
after a brief cooling off period; relations were strained when Sunni
Hamas abandoned its support of Syrian President Bashar Assad, Shi’ite
Iran's primary ally in the region.
According to the paper,
however, as Assad’s position has weakened, Iran has hedged somewhat by
re-pivoting towards Hamas in order to protect its interests were Assad
to fall.
The Sunday Times
said that Iran's motivation was to create a third proxy force in the
West Bank - after Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza - through which
to retaliate to any potential Israeli attack on Tehran's nuclear
program.
The paper concluded by quoting senior Fatah member and
former head of Palestinian general intelligence General Tawfik Tirawi as
saying that "Hamas wants intifada [uprising]" and "will take over the
West Bank.”
Last week, a poll by Khalil Shikaki of the
Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found that 48 percent
of the electorate in both the West Bank and Gaza would vote for Hamas
leader Ismael Haniyeh if Palestinian elections were to be held, as
opposed to 45% for current PA President Mahmoud Abbas.