BICOM

Discord between Hamas and the Fatah faction of Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas appeared to increase yesterday following revelations by Israel’s Shin Bet security agency that Hamas activists planned to overthrow the PA in the West Bank.

On Monday, the Shin Bet announced that it had arrested more than 90 Hamas operatives in May and June, confiscated dozens of smuggled weapons in the West Bank, and seized more than £100,000 aimed at funding attacks. Apparently, Hamas activists planned to carry out a string of attacks on Israel, foment violence on the Temple Mount and use the instability to carry out a military coup against the PA.

This morning, Haaretz reports that the PA security services knew nothing of the Hamas plan. It quotes an unnamed PA official who said “If we had known about such steps, there is no doubt the PA’s security services would have made the arrests … and would not have waited for Israel.” The official added that although Israeli reports aren’t “undisputed fact,” nonetheless “we are also aware that the ‘dream’ of taking over the West Bank has been going through the minds of Hamas leaders as far back as 2007.”

The PA and Hamas had been at loggerheads ever since Hamas violently seized control of the Gaza Strip from Fatah in 2007. However, in June, Abbas announced that a Palestinian unity government had been formed with the support of both Fatah and Hamas with a rapprochement apparently concluded. However, Abbas said on Monday that the Shin Bet’s discovery “could have dangerous implications for the unity of the Palestinian people.”

Meanwhile, Gen. Adnan Damiri, spokesman for PA forces in the West Bank yesterday said that Hamas placed around 250 Fatah activists in Gaza under house arrest during Operation Protective Edge and shot or broke the limbs of those who attempted to leave their homes, with many being treated in West Bank hospitals. Hamas denied that such shootings had been carried out on its orders.