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Palestinian Unity Agreement Will Not Lead to Less Terrorism from Gaza
(Media Line-Jerusalem Post) Michael Friedson and Charles Bybelezer - The terrorists killed in the Israeli attack on a Palestinian cross-border tunnel on Monday included two high-ranking members of the Iranian-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad: Arafat Abu Murshad, its central Gaza commander, and his deputy, Hassan Abu Hassanein. Two ranking Hamas members also perished. According to Israeli military correspondent Yaakov Lappin, "Islamic Jihad has had its own tunnel program since 2014 and this particular one appears to have been part of the network....The Iranians would very much like to turn Gaza into one of the bases that is used to target Israel." Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yosef Kuperwasser, head of the Project on Regional Middle East Developments at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, explained, "The effort dates back to the Second Intifada [between 2000 and 2005]. Tehran has attempted to do this through Islamic Jihad, which it created and completely controls, and also by financing Hamas....The lesson for Israel is that it should not be tempted to believe in the illusion that the [Fatah-Hamas] agreement will lead to less terrorism from Gaza."