Senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Zahar declared on Sunday that the terrorist movement is planning to develop its capabilities to carry out terror attacks against Israel from Judea and Samaria, and that it intends to continue to lead the Palestinian camp which advocates for armed struggle until Israel is destroyed.
Al-Zahar, who spoke in Gaza, said that the movement views the carrying out of terror attacks from Judea and Samaria as important, and plans to use available means and new methods, such as stabbing and hit-and-run attacks, against Israelis.
He further said that in the last war, Hamas’s rockets reached as far as Haifa, and that now the time has come to increase the range and destructive power of the missiles so that they can hit any point in Israel. Al-Zahar added that Hamas’s terror tunnels destroyed Israel’s security strategy as well as its plan to establish a buffer zone along Gaza.
He went on to say that there are two different streams in the Palestinian arena. The first one is represented by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terrorist organizations, and it views Israel as an enemy that must be fought against and believes that armed struggle is the only way to “liberate Palestine” and bring about the return of the refugees.
The second stream, said Al-Zahar, is Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement, which sees Israel as a partner for peace and negotiations and believes that only some of the refugees will return to Israel.
The threats of terrorism come just days after Hamas’s “military wing” warned of renewed violence unless Israel allows the reconstruction of Gaza.
"We are saying to all sides -- if the siege on Gaza and the obstacles for reconstruction remain, there will be a new explosion," said Abu Obeida, a spokesman for the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.