The Palestinian Authority's security forces revealed on Wednesday the identities of senior Hamas operatives behind efforts to rehabilitate the group's terrorist infrastructure in Judea and Samaria, chief among them Maher Obeid, the organization's newly appointed military commander in the West Bank.
The terrorist cells and infrastructure built by Hamas' military wing in Judea and Samaria were decimated by Israel during Operation Defensive Shield in 2002 during the Second Intifada, targeted assassinations over the course of the previous decade and tight security cooperation between Israeli and PA security apparatuses.
However, since the mass release of terrorists within the framework of the Gilad Schalit prisoner exchange in 2011, the organization has taken pains to establish a "West Bank command" to run its operations there.
Spearheading those efforts from abroad was Saleh Arouri, who was among those released and exiled within the framework of the Schalit deal. In October he was named deputy to Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Initially, the person charged with rehabilitating Hamas' terrorist capabilities in Judea and Samaria was Mazen Faqha, a West Bank native who was among those banished to Gaza after his release from Israeli prison in 2011.
According to a senior PA security official, following Faqha's assassination in March 2017, which the foreign media attributed to Israel, Hamas boosted its efforts to carry out attacks in Judea and Samaria and to that effect comprehensively reformed its West Bank command structure. The man appointed to replace Arouri as Hamas' military commander in Judea and Samaria was his protege, Obeid.
Obeid, a prominent figure in the terrorist group's fundraising wing, was banished from Qatar along with Arouri and other top Hamas officials in June. According to the PA's security services, Obeid currently resides in Beirut where, along with Aruri and the other senior Hamas operatives exiled from Qatar, he has established one of the organization's most important command centers.
PA security officials said the 60-year-old Obeid – a native of Jordan who was raised and educated in Hebron and then went on to fill a series of senior positions in Hamas' political wing – was recently part of the delegation of senior Hamas officials, led by Haniyeh and Arouri, to visit Tehran and top regime leaders in an effort to mend relations with the Islamic republic.
As Hamas' commander in Judea and Samaria, PA security officials said, Obeid oversees the rehabilitation of the group's terrorist infrastructure there, as well as intelligence gathering and recruitment, including suicide bombers, and ordering attacks. According to the PA, Obeid has divided the West Bank command into three sectors, each headed by a Hamas operative released in the Schalit deal and exiled to Gaza.
The commander of the southern sector, comprising Jericho, Hebron and the Bethlehem area, is Abd al-Rahman Ghanimat, from the village of Surif, who in the past was responsible for several deadly terror attacks in Israel, including the 1997 Café Apropo bombing and the abduction and murder of IDF soldier Sharon Edri.
The commander of the central sector, which includes east Jerusalem and Ramallah, is Abdullah Arar, who was involved in the kidnapping and murder of Sasson Nuriel in 2004.
The commander of the northern sector – Jenin, Nablus, Tulkarm, Tubas and Qalqilya – is believed to be Farsan Halifa, a resident of Tulkarm who was imprisoned in Israel for attempted murder.
It is still unclear whether Tuesday's shooting attack near the Havat Gilad settlement in Samaria, which claimed the life of local resident Raziel Shevach, was orchestrated by Hamas' West Bank command in Gaza.
