Hamas infiltrator in U.S.-backed forces

JERUSALEM – A senior official in a sensitive post in one of the Palestinian Authority's major U.S.-backed security organizations was arrested in recent days on suspicion he was working for the Hamas terror organization.

The Ynetnews newssite in Israel, which broke the story today, reported the man served in one of the "more sensitive" branches of the PA security apparatus. But did Ynet not report on the man's duties or details of his suspected collaboration with Hamas.

WND has learned the man in question served in a top post of PA President Mahmoud Abbas' Force 17 Presidential Guard units.

Informed Palestinian security sources said the suspected Hamas spy was involved in formulating and carrying out Force 17's plans to fight Hamas in the West Bank as well as in working with the U.S. in recent months to reform the PA's security organizations.

The purported spy's alleged collaboration with Hamas included interfering to release Hamas elements imprisoned in PA jails and defending Hamas members who were involved in money transfers from the terror group to its fighters in the West Bank, particularly in Ramallah, security sources told WND.

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The sources said the man in question is accused of receiving "tens of thousands of dollars" per month from Hamas. The PA, they said, took action to arrest him only after Israel and the U.S. provided strong evidence of his collaboration with Hamas.

Israeli security sources said they fear the recent arrest is only the tip of the iceberg with regard to Hamas' infiltration of PA security forces. They also said they fear Hamas may eventually mount a takeover of the West Bank similar to its seizure of the Gaza Strip last summer.

The issue of Hamas infiltration of Fatah was thought to have been the Achilles heel that led to the terror group's takeover of the entire Gaza Strip, including dozens of major, U.S.-backed Fatah security compounds there. Hamas' seizure is thought to be a partial consequence of Israel evacuating Gaza in 2005. Hamas' infiltration of Fatah was so extensive, according to top Palestinian intelligence sources speaking to WND, it included the chiefs of several prominent Fatah security forces, including Yussef Issa, director of the Preventative Security Services, the main Fatah police force. Issa regularly coordinated security with the U.S. and Israel.

Israel is currently negotiating a retreat from the West Bank as part of talks initiated at last November's U.S.-backed Annapolis Summit, which sought to create a Fatah-led Palestinian state before January. Security officials in Jerusalem are warning if Israel withdraws, Abbas' forces may not be strong enough to contend with controlling the West Bank without the aid of the Israel Defense Forces. Yuval Diskin, head of Israel's Shin Bet Security Services, estimated during a Knesset meeting last November that if control of the West Bank were handed over to Abbas, Israel would suffer a "significant threat to its security."

Palestinian security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, admitted to WND they would have trouble controlling the West Bank without Israeli intervention.

According to the officials, Fatah's intelligence apparatus routinely hands the IDF lists of Hamas militants that threaten Fatah rule, requesting that Israel make arrests, although Fatah has been stepping up direct arrests of Hamas gunmen in recent weeks.

In perhaps telling remarks, WND recently conducted an exclusive interview with Mahmoud Al-Zahar, the Hamas chief in Gaza, who said Hamas is the rightful representative of the Palestinian people and should control the entire West Bank just as they rule the Gaza Strip.

"According to our rights, we are the elected majority, and a majority in a democracy should control all the Palestinian areas, whether in the West Bank or in the Gaza Strip. This is not an extraordinary issue," said Al-Zahar, considered the second most powerful Hamas leader following the group's overall chief, Khaled Meshaal, who resides in exile in Damascus.

"Do you respect democracy? If you respect democracy, the elections in January '06 indicated Hamas is the majority and it should run the administration in Gaza and the West Bank," said al-Zahar, speaking from Gaza.

Al-Zahar was referring to Palestinian legislative elections in 2006 in which Hamas won by a large margin.

 

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To interview Aaron Klein, contact M. Sliwa Public Relations by e-mail, or call 973-272-2861 or 212-202-4453.

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