Hamas's
International Triangle of Bases: Gaza, Turkey and Qatar
by Yaakov Lappin
Special to IPT News
December 18, 2014
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 In recent
years, the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas has developed into a
truly international entity. Today, it enjoys three territorial bases of
operation: Gaza, the seat of the Hamas regime, Turkey, and Qatar.
According to Israeli intelligence estimates, each base serves a
different purpose. The three branches have worked, alternatively, in
harmony and in discord, together and independently, in line with the
various terrorist activities they pursue.
"These are not the same leaderships," one security source
said, speaking of the Hamas command structure in each base.
"Qatar is home to Hamas's political branch, headed by Khaled
Meshaal. In Turkey [in the city of Istanbul], Hamas maintains a military
branch headquarters, which sets up terrorist infrastructure. This
headquarters is comprised partly of former Hamas prisoners who were ejected
from Israel during the [2011] Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange. In Gaza,
there are both military and political operatives."
Each branch plays a unique role, and relations between them fluctuate.
Hamas's headquarters in Istanbul is headed by Salah Al-Arouri, a senior
figure in the military wing who is focused on rejuvenating Hamas terrorism
cells in the West Bank, and using it as a springboard for orchestrating
deadly attacks against Israel.
Gaza is home to the main military wing, the Ezzedin Al-Qassam Brigades,
whose operatives focus on building up their offensive rocket capabilities,
tunnel networks, and, like Arouri, they also seek to also set up West Bank
terrorism cells.
On Thursday, Hamas held what is described as its largest
military exercise since the summer war against Israel.
Gaza is also home to Hamas's political wing, headed by Ismail Haniyeh.
"They all have their own interests. Those in Gaza have one point of
view, those abroad have another. There have, in the past, been
disagreements," the source said.
One example of such internal conflict was the dispute between Khaled
Meshaal and Hamas in Gaza over when to end the summer war with Israel.
Meshaal pushed Hamas to continue the fighting, despite growing calls by
Hamas in Gaza to agree to a ceasefire. The conflicting positions were
partly the result of geography: Hamas in Gaza had a better real time
understanding of the heavy costs Israel was inflicting on it during the
fighting than the overseas Meshaal, who, from his luxurious Qatari
surroundings, could afford the privilege of calling for more fighting.
Nevertheless, a basic level of cooperation and consent exists among all
three branches. Saleh Al-Arouri in Turkey would not have embarked on a
major mission to set up a large-scale Hamas terrorist network in the West
Bank, plan atrocities against Israel, and aim
to topple the Palestinian Authority and its president, Mahmoud Abbas,
without approval from Khaled Meshaal and Hamas in Gaza.
Cooperation may not always be close, but it exists.
"There are connections," the security source said. "Hamas
in Gaza is connected to those trying to orchestrate terrorism in Judea and
Samaria. There is a circle of cooperation."
Arouri could seek and receive assistance from Gaza, as he has done, but
he can also try to work independently. "There are no laws," the
source stressed.
In recent months, the Shin Bet [Israel Security Agency] uncovered two
intricate Hamas terror plots to inflict mass-casualty attacks on Israelis,
and to weaken Fatah in the West Bank. Both were tied to Arouri.
This discovery has led Israeli defense chiefs to become more vocal about
the Hamas base in Turkey.
"Hamas's terrorism headquarters are in Gaza and in Istanbul. It is unbelievable
that a NATO member is hosting the headquarters of a terrorist organization
in its territory," Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon told
his Spanish counterpart earlier this month.
"We have stopped a coup planned by Hamas, which was organized in,
among other places, its Turkish headquarters, against [PA President Mahmoud
Abbas] Abu Mazen in Judea and Samaria. We saved him from this revolution.
Hence, there is much significance and importance in our having freedom to
operate security-wise in Judea and Samaria," Ya'alon stated.
Likewise, at the end of November, the Shin Bet and IDF announced
that they had broken up a large-scale international Hamas terrorist
infrastructure that was in the planning stages of multiple mass-casualty
attacks, including an intended bombing of a soccer stadium in Jerusalem.
The plot included car bombings, bombing Jerusalem's light rail system,
and targeting Israelis overseas.
This case illustrates the growing centrality of Istanbul to Hamas terror
activities in the West Bank. Hamas's headquarters in Turkey has become a
key command and planning center.
Earlier this year, the Shin Bet announced the thwarting of another large
Hamas network in the West Bank, set up by Saleh Al-Arouri in Istanbul, and
headed locally by a Hamas member in Ramallah.
Hamas funneled more than a million shekels [more than $250,000] to
terror operatives to prepare a series of attacks, which were designed to
allow it to shift attention away from Gaza, and ultimately lead to the fall
of the Fatah-run Palestinian Authority, according to Israeli investigation.
This would be achieved by provoking Israel into harsh responses in the West
Bank, destabilizing the area and leading to the toppling of the PA.
Hamas has come a long way since the days when its founders, Muslim
Brotherhood operatives in the Palestinian territories, set up indoctrination
and social support centers.
Today, it is an international terrorist organization, which continues to
plot new ways to murder and maim Israelis from its various bases, while it
dreams of setting up a second Islamist-jihadist regime in the West Bank, as
it did in Gaza.
Yaakov Lappin is the Jerusalem Post's military and national security
affairs correspondent, and author of The
Virtual Caliphate (Potomac Books), which proposes that jihadis
on the internet have established a virtual Islamist state.
Related Topics: Yaakov
Lappin, Hamas,
Saleh
Al-Arouri, Khaled
Meshaal, Ezzedin
Al-Qassam Brigades, Moshe
Ya'alon, Shin
Bet, IDF,
Qatar,
Turkey,
Gaza
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