Israel Matzav: Will Hezbullah help Hamas avenge Mahbouh?

Will Hezbullah help Hamas avenge Mahbouh?

Israel fears that Hezbullah may help Hamas try to strike Israeli or Jewish interests abroad in an effort to avenge the death of Mahmoud al-Mahbouh. Mahbouh was found dead in a Dubai hotel on January 20. Hamas believes that Israel was responsible for his death.

The assessment in Military Intelligence is that Hamas will try to strike at Israeli targets overseas, to avoid disrupting the status quo between Hamas in Gaza and Israel. Hamas is strongest overseas in Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon and could work together with Hizbullah to strike at Israel in other places as well.

By the way, the more we hear about Mahbouh, the bigger a fish he turns out to be. Consider this:

Israel is now concerned that Hamas will increase its efforts to strike at Israeli targets overseas, in response to the assassination in Dubai of Mahmoud Mabhouh, one of the key operatives behind the smuggling of Iranian weapons into the Gaza Strip.

Mabhouh helped found Hamas’s armed wing Izzadin Kassam in the 1980s, was behind the kidnapping in the first intifada of two Israeli soldiers and later established strong ties in Sudan, which he used to smuggle weaponry from Iran to Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

He was reportedly responsible for the weapons convoy that, according to foreign reports, Israel bombed during Operation Cast Lead as it was making its way to Gaza through the Sudanese desert.

Hmmm. It's good that he's gone. Whether or not we did it.

Israel Matzav: Will Hezbullah help Hamas avenge Mahbouh?