Iran, Hamas and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood have set up two staging centers ion Khartoum and El Arish, Sinai for grabbing power in Cairo. The Palestinian fundamentalist Hamas has undergone a transformation in the last two years. Today, Tehran has made Hamas an important vehicle for carrying Iranian influence ...

Israeli Navy commandos intercepted the German-owned A.S. Victoria Tuesday, March 15 about 320 kilometers off Israel's Mediterranean coast on its way from the Turkish port of Mercin to Egypt.
The Liberian-flagged vessel was carrying a large consignment of weapons bound for the Palestinian Hamas in the Gaza Strip. debkafile reports the Victoria  collected the weapons at the Syrian port of Latakia, where they had been offloaded by the two Iranian warships which transited the Suez Canal February 22.

President Barack Obama Saturday, March 5, asked Defense Secretary Robert Gates to set out for Cairo on an emergency mission to help Egypt's military rulers regain control of a situation which is slipping into the hands of the increasingly radicalized protesters, debkafile reports. Friday, thousands of protesters seized control of Egyptian security police (Mahabis Namn El Dawla) headquarters, shutting down its operations across the country. Iran is transmitting large sums to the Muslim Brotherhood through Hamas.

Hamas while preparing follow-up attacks on the Sinai gas pipeline after Saturday's explosion has opened the Egyptian-Israeli border region to Al Qaeda jihadists, international smugglers and criminal gangs - all heading for the Israel border. Egypt lacks the manpower for securing the entire Sinai Peninsula. Its troops are concentrating on securing Sharm el Sheikh and the eastern bank of the Suez Canal. Hamas is left to prey on North Sinai and make it a launching pad for terror attacks on Israel.

Egypt's suspension of gas supplies to Israel after the North Sinai pipeline was blown up Saturday, Feb 5 has suddenly cut Israel off from 25-30 percent of its gas needs and 80 percent of Jordan's. After the blast, Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmad Shafiq announced that gas supplied to both countries under contract would henceforth be diverted to domestic requirements. Israel is also deeply concerned by spreading Hamas occupation of North Sinai and on high alert for more sabotage of its power installations.

A joint Hizballah-Hamas unit used the havoc in Egypt to storm the Wadi Natrun prison north of Cairo Sunday, Jan. 30, and break out 22 members of the Hizballah's spy-cum-terror network, tried and convicted in Egypt for plotting terrorist attacks in Cairo, the Suez Canal and Suez cities and on Israeli vacationers in Sinai in 2007-2008, debkafile reports. They are back in Gaza. Muslim Brotherhood inmates were also freed to boost the anti-Mubarak street protests now in their second week.

Egyptian reinforcements reached northern Sinai Monday, Jan. 31 to hunt down Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip battling Egyptian forces for control of the territory. debkafile's sources report that the gunmen of Hamas's armed wing, Ezz e-Din al Qassam, opened a second, Palestinian, front against the Mubarak regime on orders from Hamas' parent organization, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, confirmed by its bosses in Damascus. The Muslim Brotherhood is therefore more aggressively involved in the uprising than it would seem.

Experts of Khatam al-Anbiya, the engineering arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards-IRGC, are supervising the rapid construction of a system of fortifications that crisscrosses the entire 360- square kilometer-area of the Gaza Strip - wholly underground. The Gaza system is more advanced than the one Iran built for Hizballah. Tehran has also smuggled into ...

The Israeli air strikes in Gaza early Monday, Jan. 10, officially described as aimed at "terrorist targets" and "smuggling tunnels", were in fact missions for destroying the new Hamas underground command centers which Iranian Revolutionary Guards engineers are building across the enclave, debkafile's exclusive sources report. Israel is about to change its Gaza strategy and move away from predictable operations that serve Iran's goals, one of which is punishment for the attacks on its nuclear facilities and personnel.

Since Friday night, Jan. 7 - when Israeli paratrooper, Sgt. Nadav Rutenberg, 20, from Moshav Ramot Hashavim, died and four others were injured during an ambush from the Gaza Strip - Palestinian terrorists have stepped up attacks in Gaza and the West Bank, debkafile's military sources report. Saturday, a Jenin suicider armed with two pipe bombs was shot dead trying to rush an Israeli checkpoint in the Jordan Valley. Four mortar shells from Gaza injured 3 foreign workers.

Israel has arrested two Palestinian staffers at the British consulate in East Jerusalem suspected of procuring guns for a Hamas network accused of plotting a rocket attack on the Jerusalem Teddy stadium. This is the first time foreign consular employees in Jerusalem have been apprehended on terror-related charges. London denies any connection with their consular work, but debkafile's sources report they used CD cars to deliver the guns.

Tehran is promoting the creation of a Hamas government-in-exile. It will remain secret until the moment is at hand to topple the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah and take its place. Hamas-Gaza is left out in the cold.

The escalating Palestinian violence from the Gaza Strip is the direct result of the Damascus-based Khaled Meshaal's victory in his power struggle with the Gaza wing's leadership. Today, this hardliner is in complete control of all wings of the fundamentalist Palestinian movement. His signature is clearly marked in escalating missile, mortar and raiding attacks, murderous kidnapping operations inside Israel and the deadlocked negotiations for liberating the Israeli soldier Gilead Shalit in a prisoner swap.

The Hamas government's deputy foreign minister Dr. Ahmed Yousef is actively campaigning for the Gaza regime to form a strategic partnership with Iran on the same lines as the Iranian-Syrian-Hizballah alliance. debkafile's sources report Yousef heads the radical Hamas's "moderate" wing. His campaign and invitation to the Iranian president, endorsed by the Gaza regime and Tehran, emerges as the key impediment in the path of US efforts to revive Israel-Palestinian talks.

While raising Cain about Israeli settlement construction, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is seriously weighing a secret plan for bringing a fresh influx of Hamas fighting and intelligence forces into the West Bank at points opposite Israel in a bid to patch up their feud, debkafile's sources report. Israel warns that this plan would bring IDF troops back into the West Bank towns turned over to the Palestinians and restore the dozens of dismantled roadblocks.

As Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal toys with the role of Saladin II, Washington and Brussels prepare to establish a new Palestinian Islamic Party friendly to Hamas.

Another drive-by shooting claimed by Hamas injured Moshe and Shira Morani from Maaleh Efraim at the Rimonim junction near Ramallah Wednesday night, Sept. 1. The couple saved their lives by fleeing their vehicle. debkafile: Hamas has adopted new methods for its latest campaign to sabotage peace talks: Frequent small attacks by cells of unknown perpetrators imported from Syria and Lebanon and carefully compartmentalized.

The Palestinian Hamas rulers of Gaza and Jihad Islami have called up their military wings to fight it out in a quarrel reflecting the strains in Lebanon between the pro-Syrian and pro-Iranian factions over the Saudi move to pull Damascus away from its support for the Lebanese Hizballah and Iran's counter-moves. debkafile's military sources report the situation in Gaza is close to flashpoint between corresponding factions and hope the violence brewing will not spill over into Israel.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas complained to the UN about Israel's enforcement of order on Temple Mount Friday, March 5, even though the disturbances were staged by radical Hamas and Islamist elements to destroy the US-mediate peace track which he has agreed to join.

debkafile Iranian and military sources report the new war threats from Damascus are backed by massive Iranian airlifts for boosting Syria's missile arsenal. Fresh supplies have also reached Hizballah and Hamas. Syrian war rhetoric was fanned by the delivery of 100 new medium-range surface-to-surface missiles from Iran. The Syrian foreign minister publicly confirmed debkafile's disclosure in December of a secret mutual defense pact binding Iran, Syria, Hizballah and Hamas. ...