Israeli security agency warns of terror attack by Hamas

Head of Shin Bet (Israeli Security Agency) Yuval Diskin warned at weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday that Hamas is weighing the option of carrying out a terror attack in Israel despite the current calm in the Gaza Strip.

The security chief presented the cabinet ministers with a briefing showing that Hamas would not settle for conquering the Gaza Strip, but also plan to take over the West Bank, local daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported.

"Hamas is taking the gangs and weapons off the streets, trying to demonstrate peace and quiet and get the security forces back," Diskin was quoted as saying.

"At the same time, it is examining the option of carrying out a suicide attack in order to prevent Abu Mazen (Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas)'s strengthening," he added.

Diskin also revealed that last week's rocket attack on a northern Israeli town was committed as a result of the clashes between the Lebanese army and the Fatah al-Islam militant group holed up in the Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon.

Two Katyusha rockets landed in the town of Kiryat Shmona last Sunday. Israeli army estimated that the rockets were launched by a Palestinian organization operating in southern Lebanon.

Meanwhile, Military Intelligence chief Amos Yadlin on Sunday told the cabinet that Hamas "in the short term is not interested in creating terror and wants to maintain the calm in order to establish legitimacy."

However, "the assumption is that it will return to terror, this is its ideology and it has not abandoned it," he added.

Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in a rout of Abbas' Fatah movement two weeks ago.

The infighting has left the Palestinians with two governments -- Abbas' new emergency government in the West Bank, and the Hamas regime in Gaza.

Source: Xinhua