An unnamed senior IDF General Staff officer warned that “Israel’s response to the kidnapping of another soldier into the Gaza Strip,” following Cpl Gilad Shalit’s more than 4 years in captivity by the Hamas terrorist group, “will be no less severe than Operation Cast lead.”



The statement was made on the eve of resumed negotiations over Shalit’s return, through a German mediator, between Israel and Hamas, and following IDF assessments that the terror group could be planning more attempts to kidnap additional Israeli soliders

Yehudit Barsky, has an excellent monograph on the Hamas terrorist group.

Barsky is the Director of the Division on Middle East and International Terrorism at the American Jewish Committee.

You can read Barsky’s work on Hamas here:

Hamas – The Islamic Resistance Movement in Palestine – Yehudit Barsky

According to Israeli security officials, Iranian-born American lawyer Fatima Mohammadi was one of five (5) ‘activists’ allegedly having ties to Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist groups who traveled in last week’s intercepted Mavi Marmara Flotilla to Gaza.

Mohammadi lists “intermittent travel between the U.S., U.A.E. and Iran” since 2007 on her LinkedIn profile while working as Legal Counsel for the German-based PEDEX Germany International, FZCo.

The Israeli Haaretz newspaper reported that the Israeli Defense Forces (‘IDF’) reportedly learned that Mohammadi intended to bring “illegal electronic devices into the Gaza Strip.”

Mohammadi denied the allegations in an e-mail interview with The New York Times, calling the allegations “illegitimate and unfounded.”

Mohammadi told the Times that:

I have no idea what they’re referring to as the only electronics I had in my possession or in my bag were personal items: a camera, a video camera, and my personal phones. All electronics, including laptops, were confiscated at our arrest while on board the ship and none have been returned.

Hamas’ Gaza smuggling tunnels may soon have the capability to smuggle long range missles and rockets into Gaza in one piece, according to a senior IDF official who spoke with the Jerusalem Post.

The terrorist group’s operatives and contractors would need to widen new tunnels or old ones that weren’t destroyed during Israel’s recent Operation Cast Lead campaign.