It may have been hard to notice what with all those Qassam missles falling on Sderot and vicinity, but Hamas has been maintaining a truce with Israel for the past few months.
What about the suicide bombing in Eilat recently? Silly me, that was Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in cooperation with the [Fatah] Al-Aqsa brigades. And the recent attempt to do a mass-casualty bombing in Tel Aviv was PIJ too.
The good Hamas that controls the Palestinian authority insists that they have kept the truce. It’s the bad guys in PIJ who haven’t. But now they’re fed up:
Abu Obaida, spokesman for the [Hamas] Qassam Brigades, said in the statement that “the truce with the Israeli occupation is no longer valid,” citing the “assassination of Islamic Jihad commander” Mahmoud Qassem as the reason.
Qassem was shot dead in the West Bank by Israeli Border Police on Tuesday, after security forces traced a foiled suicide bomb attack planned for Tel Aviv back to him [and after he fired on police trying to arrest him — ed.]. — YNet
Now let’s see, Hamas is maintaining a truce (except for rockets from Gaza which don’t count), and PIJ is killing Israelis. So when Israel strikes back at PIJ, elements in Hamas rush to their defense. But there’s more:
It should be noted that the statement is not a formal announcement from the Hamas movement as a whole.
Naif Hawatma, director of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine [DFLP], said on Wednesday that Hamas is involved and supportive of the political process.
Hamas, Fatah, and DFLP intend to participate in the Palestinian Unity Government, but PIJ will not participate (but will ‘support’ it).
Confused? Here’s a simple explanation: they’re all murderers.