Sources in the Gaza Strip, who are talking to Hamas leaders hiding in the Gaza Strip, say that following Israel’s declaration of war on Hamas and the intention to eliminate it, the Hamas leadership is considering expanding the war against Israel abroad and for the first time since the establishment of the terrorist organization to order the organization’s operatives to attack Jewish and Israeli targets abroad.
Such a decision requires the gathering of the “Shura Council” of the Hamas movement to discuss the issue.
Since the establishment of the Hamas organization in 1987, the organization’s leadership has decided to focus on attacks only in the areas of “Occupied Palestine”, that is, in Judea and Samaria, in the Gaza Strip and in the areas of the State of Israel, in contrast to the PLO, which also carried out a series of terrorist attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets abroad.
One of the PLO’s branches for attacks abroad was the “Black September” organization.
Hamas understands that Israel has made a decision to launch a war of attrition against the organization following the brutal massacre of the residents of the Israeli settlements near the border of the Gaza Strip on October 7.
The Hamas organization does not have an operational and intelligence infrastructure abroad like Hezbollah or ISIS, but it can use the intelligence of Hezbollah and Iran or the global “Muslim Brotherhood” movement.
The Israeli security establishment estimates that operatives of the military wing of Hamas who manage to escape from the hands of the IDF forces that have entered the Gaza Strip, may flee to the Sinai Peninsula, through the tunnels in the “Philadelphi Axis”, and join the ISIS branch and from there carry out attacks against Israel, the security officials Israel says that Egypt is responsible for dealing with the terrorist organizations in Sinai and preventing any of their activities against Israel.
However, there are also elements in the leadership of Hamas who oppose the transition to attacks abroad for fear that this will arouse strong opposition from the international community and serve the Israeli claim that Hamas is ISIS.
Hamas also fears that terrorist attacks abroad could damage the mechanism of preaching in mosques (dawa-in Arabic) and the mechanism of collecting donations for the organization in European countries and the United States.
The terrible massacre by Hamas terrorists of Israeli civilians and soldiers severely damaged the organization’s image in the international community, this organization tried in recent years to get recognition from European countries, but now it is in great distress.
Israel has declared war on Hamas everywhere in the world, not only in the Gaza Strip, this is a war that will last for many years and will be bloody, after the elimination of the military leadership in the Gaza Strip, Israel will move to an operation to eliminate the leadership of Hamas abroad, just as it eliminated the leadership of the “Black September” organization ” who carried out the massacre of the Israeli athletes in Munich in 1972.
The assessment among Hamas operatives is that the Israeli establishment is preparing to assassinate its leaders and operatives abroad, therefore it is not impossible that Hamas will prepare for war, establish an operational infrastructure abroad and try to harm Jewish and Israeli targets abroad
