Palestinian 'confesses' to Israel-backed plot to oust Hamas, return PA to Gaza

In Hamas-released video, man says plan to insert Dahlan in Gaza.

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Palestinian confesses to anti-Hamas plot 370 (photo credit: YouTube Screenshot)
Palestinian confesses to anti-Hamas plot 370
(photo credit: YouTube Screenshot)
Hamas authorities on Friday released a video of a Palestinian man who “confessed” that he was part of a scheme to instigate unrest and chaos in the Gaza Strip.
The “confession” came after Hamas said its security forces had arrested several Palestinians on suspicion of involvement with the new anti-Hamas Tamarod (“rebellion”) group.
The group has vowed to overthrow the Hamas regime the same way Egyptians got rid of president Mohamed Morsi.
The man, whose identity was not revealed, claimed that Israel, the Palestinian Authority and and some Arab countries were behind the plot. He did not name the Arab countries.
The plot, he added, envisages the return of the PA to the Gaza Strip and appointing former Fatah strongman Muhammad Dahlan as president of the enclave. On Saturday, Dahlan, a former security commander in the Gaza Strip, denied the allegation, saying Hamas was unable to face growing popular anger against its oppression.
“I understood that the goal was to stage a coup [against] Hamas,” the man in the video said, adding that PA officers belonging to the Preventive Security Force had met with him in the Gaza Strip. “I was told that blood would be up to the ankles in the Gaza Strip,” he said.
According to the man’s “confession,” PA security agents who met with him in the Gaza Strip told him that the mission of toppling Hamas should be completed in six months.
“They instructed me to form cells in the southern Gaza Strip,” he added. “They told me that they have their own groups and enough weapons in the northern Gaza Strip and that they are prepared to put an end to Hamas’s injustice.
They also said that they have a lot of money.”
Islam Shahwan, spokesman for the Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry, said the man was part of a group of “suspicious elements” whose goal was to undermine the Islamist movement.
Some of the suspects were linked to Israel, he claimed.