Hezbollah Recruiting Fatah Cells to Attack Israel

Hezbollah is reportedly upping its attempts to recruit Palestinians living in Judea and Samaria to carry out attacks on its behalf, according to Palestinian Authority sources.

 

The Lebanon-based terrorist group is reportedly attempting to revive its terrorist network in the region by reaching out to disgruntled members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a terrorist group that functions as the armed wing of Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction.

 

During the Second Intifada Hezbollah, under instruction from Iran, recruited extensively among Fatah members, training and arming them to attack Israeli targets. Those efforts reached their height in 2004-2005, with tens of thousands of dollars being doled-out to recruits as an incentive to carry out attacks.

 

Since then the efforts largely petered out for a number of reasons, including Israel’s intensive security operations and the PA’s own crackdown to prevent challenges to its authority in Judea and Samaria. However, a PA security source told the Arabic Al-Masdar site Hezbollah recruitment attempts “never really disappeared,” and in recent months had escalated significantly.

 

With Iran emboldened by the prospect of billions of dollars of sanctions relief due to the recent deal reached with world powers over its nuclear program, it is widely acknowledged even by supporters of the deal that Tehran will use some of those funds to increase support for its numerous terrorist proxies.

 

Read More: Hezbollah Recruiting Fatah Cells to Attack Israel – Defense/Security – News – Arutz Sheva