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Hizballah's West Bank Foothold

(Washington Institute for Near East Policy) Matthew Levitt - By early 2002, Israeli intelligence sources had documented Iran's use of the social-welfare hook to recruit Palestinians into Hizballah. Two Palestinians arrested upon their return from Iran, Shadi Jaber and Jihad Ibrahim Albasha, related that the Iranian Committee for Aiding Wounded Victims of the Intifada had been working to find potential terrorist recruits among injured Palestinians. The committee apparently offered free travel, medical treatment, and terrorist training for those who returned to the territories to establish terrorist cells. Among those involved in the recruitment drive, according to Albasha, were Nosratollah Tajik, the Iranian ambassador to Jordan; Hisham Abdel al-Razek, the PA minister of detainees; and Abu Mahadi Najafi, a senior Hizballah operative. Lebanon-based operatives from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hizballah have built on this effort, recruiting a network of rogue Fatah Tanzim cells to serve as Hizballah's West Bank cadres, calling themselves the "Return Brigades." The Return Brigades maintain close operational cooperation between their various Tanzim cells. For example, brigade leaders smuggled one operative abroad for sniper training, then sent the new sniper around the West Bank to train other Tanzim cells. Hizballah no longer needs to recruit, train, and infiltrate terrorists into Israel through Europe (as it has done at least four times since 1996) because it now controls an extremely capable terrorist network within the West Bank.
2003-09-03 00:00:00
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