Palestinian Authority Tightens Grip on Hamas in West Bank
Hamas says a crackdown by the Palestinian Authority has damaged Hamas' formal structure in the West Bank, but that it is reorganizing nevertheless.
When Hamas resorted to what it called “military decisiveness” in June 2007 by expelling the Palestinian Authority (PA) from Gaza and establishing control over the entire Gaza Strip, it was clear that the PA would retaliate by launching a rigorous anti-Hamas arrest campaign in the West Bank. Hamas accused the PA and Israel earlier this month of escalating matters by arresting and torturing its leaders and supporters in the West Bank.
A senior Hamas leader in Gaza told Al-Monitor that what the PA is doing against the movement in the West Bank is a desperate attempt to eradicate Hamas completely and is the embodiment of security coordination between the PA and Israel, claiming that the number of Hamas detainees is in the hundreds. They are held in a number of West Bank prisons that are affiliated with the PA’s General Intelligence and Preventive Security agencies.
Al-Monitor obtained an internal Hamas document that shows that the PA still holds more than 72 Hamas members in its jails. Since the start of 2013, 440 Hamas activists and supporters have been arrested for political reasons and 920 were summoned by the security services, among them freed prisoners, university students, journalists, imams and teachers, most notably Wajdi al-Aruri, Islam Hamed, Atef al-Salihi, Ayoub al-Qawasmi, Abdelfattah Shreim, Alaa Dhiab and Amin al-Quqa.
Sleeper cells
