Tensions Flare on Gaza Border After Death of Hamas Terror Boss

March 27, 2017

by: Ilse Posselt

Monday, 27 March 2017 | The already strained situation on Israel’s southern border with Gaza intensified over the weekend as Hamas accused the Jewish state of assassinating one of its top terror heads. Mazen Fukha, a senior leader in Hamas’s armed wing, the Izzadin Kassam Brigade, was shot outside his home in Tel al-Hawa in the Gaza Strip late Friday night.

Although the parties responsible remain unknown, the terror organization ruling over the Gaza Strip immediately pointed an accusatory finger at Israel. “Hamas and its fighting brigades place the full responsibility on the Israeli occupation and its collaborators,” the Izzadin Kassam Brigade said in an official statement. The statement identified Fukha as a commander in the organization and hailed him as a “martyr.”

Hamas’s international spokesperson, Husam Badran, also commented on the incident via its official Twitter account, saying, “The occupation is responsible for this assassination. Netanyahu knows this will not pass quietly.”

The Jewish state has refrained from commenting on the incident.

Fukha is no stranger in Israeli circles. A known terrorist, Fukha was responsible for planning and executing a 2002 suicide bombing on an Israeli bus in the north of the country that killed nine people and wounded 38 others. An Israeli court sentenced the terrorist to nine life sentences in 2003. He was, however, released in 2011 as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner swap deal and deported to Gaza where he promptly resumed his terror activities against the Jewish state.

During the six years Fukha spent in the coastal enclave, he was instrumental in both establishing a Hamas stronghold in Israel and managing the terror organization’s headquarters outside Gaza. According to The Times of Israel, Fukha was responsible for Hamas terror cells in Judea and Samaria and also played a leading role in planning a number of terror attacks against Israelis in that area. Ynet News reports that “Fukha worked day and night from the Gaza Strip to plan and execute attacks against Israel by establishing and guiding military cells. He was one of the pillars of Hamas’s “West Bank [Judea and Samaria] branch.”

Thousands of mourners clad in the colors of Hamas turned out for Fukha’s funeral procession in northern Gaza on Saturday. Shouts of “revenge, revenge!” reverberated through the streets as Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, and head of the terror group in Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, accompanied Fukha’s body, draped in the Hamas flag, from the morgue to the mosque for burial.

Vows of vengeance and retaliation filled the impassioned eulogies for the deceased terror head. “The occupation knows that the blood of those struggling in the way of God will not be wasted,” a spokesperson for Hamas threatened. “Hamas knows how to deal with these crimes.”

For his part, Haniyeh vowed, “We will preserve [his] blood, carry [out his] will and continue the battle until the liberation of Jerusalem.”

Despite Hamas’s conviction that Israel is responsible for Fukha’s death, a number of questions as to the responsible party remain, Ynet News reports. Although his activities in establishing terror cells in Judea and Samaria and threatening the lives of Israelis through his continued commitment to perpetrating attacks served as a red flag for the powers that be in the Jewish state, Ynet News argues that Hamas, Gaza-based Salafi groups and even the Palestinian Authority [PA] could be behind Fukha’s death.

According to Ynet News, Hamas is notorious for punishing its members, no matter how senior, “who do not follow the orders of its top command and appear to be too creative or too competitive.” Moreover, there is also the possibility that Hamas’s top brass suspected Fukha of acting as a double agent, feeding information to Israel. The terror group’s newly elected head is, after all, infamous for admitting to the murder of over ten suspected collaborators.

As far as Gaza-based Salfi groups are concerned, Ynet News explains that a recent Hamas crack-down on these groups has resulted in vows of revenge. Killing one of its top commanders might well be the method these groups chose to punish Hamas.

Lastly, the Palestinian Authority’s reason for wanting to see Fukha out of the picture is its fear of having Hamas gaining a stronger foothold in Judea and Samaria, Ynet News concludes.

While the speculation continues, Hamas reacted to the weekend’s incident by cutting off all entry and exit points to the Strip. For the first time since the terror group took control over the Gaza Strip in 2007, it closed the Erez border crossing with Israel. As a result, neither Palestinians nor international representatives are able to move in or out of Gaza. The Hamas Interior Ministry has also barred all other exit points from the Strip, claiming the closings as an attempt to bar those responsible for Fukha’s death to leave Gaza.

Posted on March 27, 2017

Source: (Bridges for Peace, 27 March 2017)

Photo Credit: Orrling/ Wikipedia

Photo License: wikimedia