Hamas remains deterred and is not interested in another war with Israel, but its rival in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, may drag it into one, Director of Military Intelligence Maj. Gen. Tamir Heyman said Wednesday.
Speaking at the Israel Intelligence Heritage and Commemoration Center in Tel Aviv, Heyman said that "Hamas is deterred and has expressed the desire to continue on the track of the [cease-fire] arrangement," adding that the group's "growing sovereign obligations are causing tensions with Islamic Jihad."
The latter has been increasingly trying to undermine Hamas in Gaza, and while "it's still coordinated with Hamas, it has higher explosive potential," Heyman said.
The Islamic Jihad is "a wild card" in Gaza, and is a "highly unstable force that fundamentally still views itself as a resistance group that must act aggressively," he warned.
Addressing the issue of Iran's presence in Syria, Heyman noted that the IDF's actions have "led to a relative containment of its [Iran] entrenchment in Syria," but the Islamic Republic was still "highly motivated to establish a regional foothold elsewhere in the region," for example, in Iraq.
Heyman further noted that even if Iran leaves the 2015 nuclear deal, and despite boasting otherwise, Tehran may fail to obtain a nuclear bomb.
He declined to elaborate on whether such a failure would stem from Iran slowing its pursuit of a bomb to reduce the risk of global intervention, from a scientific failure, or from a pre-emptive strike.
Iran, he said, "is under unprecedented pressure from every direction by U.S. sanctions," which is why it has been mounting low-grade attacks in the Persian Gulf against American and Saudi interests, as well as making threats about stepping up its nuclear enrichment efforts.
Commenting on the Lebanese arena, Heyman dismissed comments by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who recently threatened Israel with more powerful precision missiles.
Israeli Military Intelligence believes the Iranian-backed Shiite terrorist group has an arsenal of some 150,000 missiles, threatening the length and breadth of Israel.
The IDF knows about all of Hezbollah's capabilities, "maybe even better than [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah," he said, adding that some of the weapons with which Nasrallah threatened Israel are not even operational.
Commenting on the military's intelligence-gathering efforts collection, Heyman noted that "the vast majority of our intelligence today comes from cyber … and we are only limited by our imagination."
