PA warns of Hamas efforts to kidnap Israelis in West Bank

New report by Palestinian security agency says Islamists seeking to bolster presence in Fatah-ruled territories, Israel Radio reports.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Palestinians clash with IDF near Hebron 370 (photo credit: REUTERS)
Palestinians clash with IDF near Hebron 370
(photo credit: REUTERS)
The Palestinian Authority's security forces are warning that Hamas will be increasingly active in revitalizing its campaign of terrorism against Israeli soldiers and civilians in the West Bank in the coming year, Israel Radio reported on Thursday.
According to a report authored by one of the PA's security apparatuses, Ramallah anticipates that Hamas, which rules Gaza but has been kept in check in the West Bank by its chief rival, the secularist Fatah, will seek to kidnap Israelis as well as commit drive-by shootings against Israeli motorists.
The report, cited on Thursday by Israel Radio, states that Islamist operatives on the ground in the West Bank will receive their instructions from senior Hamas figures based in Gaza and abroad.
The PA is concerned that Islamists will seek to recruit Palestinian students abroad and establish dormant "sleeper" cells in the West Bank.
An al-Qaida-linked group said three gunmen killed in the West Bank by Israeli security forces this past November were its members, and that their presence there showed that the Islamist network had taken root in the Palestinian territories.
Al-Qaida has struggled to build up significant support in the West Bank, analysts say, and the Palestinian Authority last week denied an Israeli report the men were linked to the organization.
“By the will of Allah, the global jihadi doctrine has reached the bank of pride, the West Bank, planting its foothold after all attempts to thwart its presence,” said a statement posted by Majles Shura al-Mujahideen, or Holy Warriors’ Assembly, on an Islamist web forum.
Such groups have some grassroots support in Gaza, which is governed by Hamas.
Israeli officials had said the three Palestinians killed on Tuesday belonged to an al-Qaida-linked cell plotting attacks.
They said the men were shot after opening fire at Israeli troops who tried to arrest them.
In Israel, senior security sources said the extremist Salafi jihadist movement that drove the gunmen to act remains a marginal force, but one that could grow in scope and danger if it exploits a power vacuum in the West Bank.
The terror cell that was intercepted and found to be in possession of explosives and firearms last week had been planning to kidnap IDF soldiers, according to the security sources.
The armed men, from the village of Yatta, also planned on attacking the Palestinian Authority, security sources said.
“Salafi jihadism is an idea, not an organization,” one source said. “According to this idea, everything that is a state but not ruled according to Islamic law is an infidel entity. For them, this holds true of the Palestinian Authority and Israel.”
“To say that it’s a phenomenon is going too far. But the idea is spreading.” the source said.
Yaakov Lappin and Reuters contributed to this report.