WORLD AT WAR: 6.10.17 - With an army of 27,000, Hamas terror chief Deif readies Gaza for war

With an army of 27,000, Hamas terror chief Deif readies Gaza for war - By Avi Issacharoff -

http://www.timesofisrael.com/with-an-army-of-27000-hamas-terror-chief-deif-readies-gaza-for-war/

The Strip's Islamist regime may not want conflict yet, but its 'chief of staff' is preparing for one. And some believe
it is better equipped today than it was in 2014

 

If things weren't bad enough for residents of the Gaza Strip, the ocean - the only place where they could escape the
heat and their suffering - has been declared off-limits to bathers in much of the area. The decision was taken by the Gaza municipality, citing the severe pollution of the beaches. Gaza's sewage-treatment plants have shut down due to the ongoing power shortage,
and as a result, untreated sewage has been flowing into the sea.

"The only place we could go to have fun has been closed too," said T., a Gaza City resident, in a telephone interview. "There are a few beaches in the
northern Gaza Strip where swimming is still possible, but they're far away. So where are we going to go? There's no pay, no power, no beach. We're swimming in shit," he added, laughing bitterly.

 

Anyone in Israel inclined toward schadenfreude about the Gazans' suffering might be advised to reconsider. The Mediterranean
currents could easily carry Gaza's sewage to the beaches of Ashkelon, Ashdod, and farther north.

T. said that the despair is growing worse each day. "We're in the month of Ramadan. There were years when the streets were filled every night with people
coming and going, just like in Ramallah." This year, by contrast, although younger Gazans still crowd the cafes, "people have no money to shop," said T.  "There's no violence and the situation is relatively calm, but I wouldn't be surprised if one day you
see people starting to march in desperation toward the Erez border crossing."

 

Hamas has also been talking of a potential mass march toward the Israeli border fence. The terror group held a so-called
day of rage on Friday, and said it would continue into this week and that as part of it, Gaza residents would march toward the fence. Hamas's intention is to channel public anger toward Israel while sending the message to the Israelis that if the power shortage
is not relieved soon, the situation could deteriorate into a full-scale conflict.

 

Still, the news out of Gaza is not all bleak.

First, Israel did not reduce the amount of electricity that it provides to the Strip on June 1, even though the Palestinian Authority asked Israel, which
collects tax money on behalf of the PA and then transfers it on, to decrease the amount it deducts from that sum for paying Gaza's overdue electric bill.

 

The average resident of the Gaza Strip receives approximately four to six hours of electricity each day. If Israel
had reduced the amount of electricity that it provides, this would have gone down to two to four hours each day. Evidently due to pressure from National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Resources Minister Yuval Steinitz, defense establishment officials decided
to stop the planned reduction and wait.

Second, Hamas is doing everything in its power to prevent another round of armed conflict with Israel from breaking out. If we look closely at its behavior
since Operation Protective Edge ended in August 2014, Hamas - an organization sworn to the State of Israel's destruction - is acting almost like Israel's own Border Police. While the purpose of the positions it has established along Israel's border may primarily
be to keep a lookout on the enemy, they also prevent armed men who could perpetrate terror attacks against Israeli targets from getting near the fence.

Hamas has been working to prevent both terror attacks and rocket fire against Israel. Where it has not managed to prevent the latter, it has arrested
and even tortured operatives of jihadist groups responsible for the fire from time to time. So-called "rebel" groups have been responsible for all the rocket-fire incidents that have taken place - 40 in all - since the end of the last war almost three years
ago.

Hamas officials inspect the drivers who arrive at the Kerem Shalom border crossing from the Palestinian side to thwart any planned terror attacks there.
They also speak with Palestinian fishermen before they go out to sea to make sure they do not leave the waters where fishing is permitted.

So much for the "good" news. Now for the rest.

Deif's army

Even as Hamas tries to avoid a conflict now, it is preparing intensively for the next war.

And there are some who believe its position today is stronger than it was in the summer of 2014.

Hamas is built like an army in every way. It has at its disposal 27,000 armed men divided into six regional brigades, with 25 battalions and 106 companies.

Of this military array, 2,500 armed men are members of the Nuhba, Hamas's elite unit. A third of these troops are intended to be sent to carry out attacks
inside Israeli territory. These gunmen are supposed to strike from the sea (the naval commandos), from the air (using flying ATVs or motorized gliders, for example), and, of course, from the ground, mainly via cross-border tunnels, from which they would emerge
to raid an Israeli residential community or army base in order to kidnap and kill.

The tunnels are the main focus of Hamas's military efforts.

Hamas invests even more in "defensive" tunnels - those it uses inside the Gaza Strip - than in the attack tunnels that are designed to penetrate into
Israeli territory. It has tunnels inside Gaza thought to be dozens of kilometers long: an actual city beneath the Strip that will enable the entire rocket operation, as well as Hamas's command and control echelons, to continue to function even during severe
aerial bombardment by Israel.

In charge of this entire effort is Mohammed Deif, the terror chief with nine lives. Born in the Khan Younis refugee camp 52 years ago, Deif has been a
wanted man since the 1980s, when he was among those who set up Hamas's military wing.

 

Deif has been wounded several in assassination attempts. One of his wives and two of his children were killed in an
Israeli attempt on his life during 2014's Operation Protective Edge.

Not only has he returned to his position despite his injuries, but Deif is also considered the military wing's supreme commander and is responsible for
building Hamas's military strength and preparing it for war. While Yahya Sinwar, Hamas's overall Gaza chief, is considered a "defense minister" of sorts, Deif concentrates on the military sphere. He has set up a small general staff whose members include his
deputy, Marwan Issa, military intelligence head Ayman Nofal, and several Hamas brigade commanders.

Deif and his "supervising minister" Sinwar - both of whom are considered radical even by Hamas standards - are cautious and in no hurry to start a war
with Israel. This, despite the worsening situation in the Gaza Strip, the ongoing closure of the Rafiah border crossing, and the PA's threats to force tens of thousands of officials into retirement and cut the salaries of the ones staying on.

As far as the old-new Hamas headed by Ismail Haniyeh, Sinwar, and Deif is concerned, the main goal, at least for now, is not another war with Israel,
but rather the survival of Hamas's regime in Gaza and a future takeover of Palestinian power centers - the West Bank and the PLO - in their entirety.

Adapting

One reason Hamas is not eager for another conflict just yet is that Gaza's population has had its fill of war and catastrophe. The inhabitants of the
Strip have adapted to the new situation of prolonged power outages, salary cutbacks, and so on, and, as always, have learned to survive.

For example, after the iftar and the tarawih - the evening break-fast meal and the prayer service afterward - the young people hurry off to Gaza's famous
cafés, such as Gahwetna, on the Sheikh Ajlin neighborhood's polluted beach, and Habiba. The nargila is the item most in demand there, along with coffee, tea, and fruit juice. These establishments are for the young men - the shabab - only. Other places - such
as the Al-Deira Café (on the Rimal beach), the adjacent Roots, and Level Up, on the eleventh floor of a building in the Rimal section - have a mixed clientele.

The threats by the PA in Ramallah to decrease fund transfers to Gaza continue to loom. T., for one, is sharply critical. "I don't know what Abu Mazen (Mahmoud
Abbas) is trying to accomplish with the cutbacks and reducing the payments for electricity. He wants to punish Hamas, but he's actually punishing two million Gazans."

Top Israeli intel official: Threat of Iran's Mideast dominance 'immediate'

- By Anna Ahronheim -

http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Intelligence-Ministry-D-G-Threat-of-Iranian-dominance-in-region-immediate-495062

Concern among officials about Iran's influence - and what is believed to be its goal of forming a land corridor from Tehran to Beirut - has grown.

 

The threat from Tehran's growing strength in Syria should be the number one focus of concern for Israel and the West,
a top Israeli intelligence official said on Tuesday.

"The Iranian nuclear issue will of course always be a very high priority," Intelligence Ministry director-general Chagai Tzuriel told The Jerusalem Post
on the sidelines of the 8th annual Israel Defense Exhibition in Tel Aviv. "But the negative potential built-in in the nuclear agreement will become more threatening as time goes by, while the threat of Iranian dominance in the region is immediate."

 

Developments in Syria have created "a strong imbalance in the region to Iran's benefit," Tzuriel told the global gathering
of military and defense professionals. "Iran's strengthening in Syria is an issue that must be addressed right now."

Concern among officials about Iran's influence - and what is believed to be its goal of forming a land corridor from Tehran to Beirut - has grown.

 

This is particularly true since Iranian-backed Iraqi militias recently reached strategically situated villages on the
Syria-Iraq border, which according to Tzuriel is today's location of greatest urgency.

"There is no doubt that Iran has a strategic plan to make a continuous land bridge," Tzuriel told the Post, and if Tehran succeeds in creating a continuous
land bridge from Iran to Lebanon, he said, "it would be a strategic game-changer."

Maj.-Gen. Qassem Soleimani, a senior figure in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was photographed on a scouting tour of the northwest Iraqi countryside
near the Syrian border.

Tzuriel, who served in the Mossad for 28 years, said the presence of Soleimani, a top player in external Iranian operations as well as internal politics,
was "a significant" message from Iran.

"Having Iran on the Iraq-Syria border is a new chapter," he said. "We may be entering the final stretch of Islamic State militancy in those countries...
but we must then ask ourselves what are we paving the way for? What is the next threat? A mutation of global jihad or Iran, or both?" Tzuriel said the West and Israel must prevent the threat posed by Iran from maturing.

"If Iran and Hezbollah manage to base themselves in Syria, it would be a permanent source of instability in the entire region. Even Moscow understands
this," he explained.

 

A Jihad Army In Europe?

- By Giulio Meotti -

http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=1290

 

"Germany is quietly building a European army under its command," according to some in the media. Apparently German
Chancellor Angela Merkel, after her clash with U.S. President Donald Trump, would like to invest, along with France, in a European army.

At present, however, there is just one real army in Europe -- the Jihadist Army, as in the terrorists who struck London on June 3 and murdered seven people,
just two weeks after carnage in Manchester.

In the four European countries most targeted by terror attacks -- Britain, France, Belgium and Germany -- the number of official extremists has reached
66,000. That sounds like a real army, on active duty.

Intelligence officers have identified 23,000 Islamic extremists living in Britain as potential terrorists. The number reveals the real extent of the jihadist
threat in the UK.

The scale of the Islamist challenge facing the security services was disclosed after intense criticism that many opportunities to stop the Manchester
suicide bomber had been overlooked.

French authorities are monitoring 15,000 Islamists, according a database created in March 2015 and managed by France's Counter-Terrorism Coordination
Unit. Different surveys estimate up to 20,000 French radical Islamists.

The number on Belgium's anti-terror watch-list surged from 1,875 in 2010 to 18,884 in 2017. In Molenbeek, the well-known jihadist nest in the EU capital,
Brussels, intelligence services are monitoring 6,168 Islamists. Think about that: 18,884 Belgian jihadists compared to 30,174 Belgian soldiers on active duty.

The number of potential jihadists in Germany has exploded from 3,800 in 2011 to 10,000, according to Hans-Georg Maassen, head of the Office for the Protection
of the Constitution (Germany's domestic intelligence service).

These Islamists have built a powerful infrastructure of terror inside Europe's cities. These terror bases are self-segregated, multicultural enclaves
in which extremist Muslims promote Islamic fundamentalism and implement Islamic law, Sharia -- with the Tower Hamlets Taliban of East London; in the French banlieues [suburbs], and in The Hague's "sharia triangle", known as "the mini-caliphate," in the Netherlands.

These extremist Muslims can comfortably get their weapons from the Balkans, where, thanks to Europe's open borders, they can travel with ease. They can
also get their money from abroad, thanks to countries such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

These Islamists can self-finance through the mosques they run, as well as get "human resources," donated by unvetted mass migration coming through the
Mediterranean.

23,000 potential jihadists in the UK, 18,000 in Belgium, 10,000 in Germany, 15,000 in France. What do these numbers tell us? There might be a war in Europe
"within a few years", as the chief of the Swedish army, General Anders Br�nnstr�m, told the men under his command that they must expect.

Take what happened in Europe with the terror attacks from 1970 to 2015:

"4,724 people died from bombings. 2,588 from assassinations. 2,365 from assaults. 548 from hostage situations. 159 from hijackings. 114 from building
attacks. Thousands were wounded or missing".

Terrorism across Europe has killed 10,537 people in 18,803 reported attacks. And it is getting worse:

"Attacks in 2014 and 2015 have seen the highest number of fatalities, which includes terrorists targeting civilians, government officials, businesses and the
media, across Europe since 2004".

A jihadist takeover of Europe is no longer unthinkable. Islamic extremists are already reaping what they sowed: they successfully defeated Geert Wilders
and Marine Le Pen, the only two European candidates who really wanted to fight radical Islam. What if tomorrow these armed Islamists assault the Parliament in Rome, election polls in Paris, army bases in Germany or schools in London, in a Beslan-type attack?

The terrorists' ransom is already visible: they have destabilized the democratic process in many European countries and are drafting the terms of freedom
of expression. They have been able to pressure Europe into moving the battle-front from the Middle East to Europe itself.

Of all the French soldiers engaged in military operations, half are deployed inside France; in Italy, more than half of Italian soldiers are used in "Safe
Streets," the operation keeping Italy's cities safe.

After 9/11, the United States decided to fight the Islamists in Afghanistan and Iraq, not to have to fight them in Manhattan. Europe chose the opposite
direction: it as if Europe had accepted to turn its own cities into a new Mosul.

If Europe's leaders do not act now to destroy the enemy within, the outcome may well come to be an "Afghan scenario," in which Islamists control part
of the territory from where they launch attacks against cities.

Europe could be taken over the same way Islamic State took over much of Iraq: with just one-third of Iraqi territory.

 

 

 

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