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Rift Reported within the Hamas Leadership

(The Times-UK) Anshel Pfeffer - Few in Lebanon had any doubt that the Dec. 10 explosion at the Burj al-Shemali Palestinian refugee camp was an Israeli sabotage operation targeting Hamas rockets, which are manufactured locally with Iranian guidance. The explosion and its aftermath shed light on a secret rift within the Hamas leadership. On one side are the radicals, convinced that their future is as a military proxy of the Shia regime in Iran. On the other are those who reject that vision and are striving to win back the patronage of more moderate Sunni Arab powers such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Egypt. Hamas had earned a brief period of popularity among Palestinians in May by firing thousands of rockets into Israel, but is now teetering on the brink of bankruptcy after being rejected by most of its former patrons in the Arab world. Its fundraising operations among Muslim communities across the world have been squeezed owing to clandestine operations by Western intelligence agencies and pressure put on banks to deny facilities to any organization seen as a front to the militants. Khaled Mashal, who heads Hamas operations outside the Palestinian territories, has been trying to rebuild relations with the Sunni-Arab regimes. However, his rival, Ismail Haniyeh, chairman of Hamas' political bureau, has pursued a policy of rapprochement with the Iranians.
2021-12-23 00:00:00
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