Gaza-based Palestinian Islamic resistance movement Hamas is ready for a fresh conflict with Israel, the head of the Jewish state’s domestic intelligence agency told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet on Sunday.
Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman said Hamas had rebuilt its relationship with Iran -- following earlier differences over the conflict in Syria -- and was funneling resources into preparing itself for “another confrontation with Israel”, according to The Jerusalem Post.
Argaman was quoted by the newspaper as saying that Hamas continued to pose a serious threat to Israeli security, claiming that Shin Bet had foiled some 200 attacks over the course of the last year.
He also described the Israeli-occupied West Bank as “fragile” owing to tensions that have mounted since July, when Palestinians took to the streets to protest a raft of Israeli security measures -- since repealed -- at Jerusalem's flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque.
“Israelis are not aware of everything the ISA [Shin Bet] does,” Netanyahu said at Sunday’s security meeting.
The prime minister went on to assert that, in July and August, the Shin Bet had broken up over 70 “terrorist cells” that had been planning attacks on Israelis.