Does Hamas Have A New Force That Prevents Rocket Fire?

Does Hamas Have A New Force That Prevents Rocket Fire?

In Haaretz, Avi Issacharoff writes that “The Hamas government in Gaza has been operating a force over the past few months whose sole task is to prevent the firing of rockets into Israel.” According to the report, “The new force was formed by and is under the direct command of Hamas Interior Minister Fathi Hammad.”
  


Issacharoff is a quality reporter, however, this force is not new, though it has been in recent action. Reports regarding this anti-rocket force have been around since JANUARY 2011! In truth, there were also reports in 2009, however, these were quickly dismissed by Hamas.


A few weeks after the reports in January 2011, Palestine Press published a memo reportedly from Hamas “that apparently shows a Hamas police directive to find rocket launchers and stop all rocket attacks against Israel, saying it is a severe violation of the law:”


Finally, the role of Fathi Hammad is important. Back in March, Ynet reported that “A terror faction formed by Hamas is behind the recent attacks on Israel." According to the report, the group, known as the Defenders of Al-Aqsa, allows “Hamas to assert a pragmatic façade in the international arena, while covertly keeping up its military activity.”


The group is reportedly headed by Fathi Hammad and “is considered a militant faction that wished to split off Hamas due to its seemingly political moderateness.”


It would appear that the report in Haaretz and the Yediot Ahranot report summarized by Ynet are a bit contradictory, no?


Tomorrow should be interesting as this will certainly get covered by the Arab media, and the terrorist groups named in the report are likely to issue statements.

http://challahhuakbar.blogspot.com/2012/05/does-hamas-have-new-force-that-prevents.html