(Times of Israel) Avi Issacharoff - The killing of three of its most senior commanders in southern Gaza was the harshest blow - militarily and in terms of morale - that Hamas has sustained since the start of the Gaza war, demonstrating that Hamas has been penetrated by Israeli intelligence. Given that the fighting had re-escalated since Tuesday, and that Israel was known to be trying to hit the Hamas military leadership, the three had taken every possible precaution to evade Israeli intelligence. Those precautions simply were not good enough. Two of the three were not mere senior commanders of the al-Qassam Brigades. Muhammad Abu Shamala and Raed al-Attar were part of the founding generation of the Hamas military wing - long-term veterans with experience and knowledge that cannot be easily replaced. The two were also tied to the killing of 16 Egyptian soldiers on the Gaza-Sinai-Israel border two years ago, and Egypt knew of their ties to terrorist organizations in the Sinai.
2014-08-22 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive