The head of Hamas political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, said that new bombings in the Gaza Strip were supposed to follow the explosion attacks in Gaza City last Tuesday.
Haniyeh’s remarks were made at a memorial service held in Gaza for three Palestinian police officers who were killed last week in two explosions at two police checkpoints in the southern part of the city.
“These bombings aimed to provoke the beginning of a security chaos in Gaza. You will realize that there was a plan to create a very dangerous picture there,” he said.
Two suicide bombers blew up two security checkpoints in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, killing three Hamas policemen in the deadliest attack by these groups against the movement.
Haniyeh stressed that the second objective of the bombings, after the chaos, was to hit the strategic relationship between the national factions.
The third is to impose new priorities on the Palestinian resistance factions, and the fourth is to hit the social fabric in Gaza, he underlined.
The recent statements by the Hamas political bureau chief confirmed a report published by Asharq Al-Awsat, which said that the movement was in the process of announcing the foiling of a large-scale plot aimed at carrying out several bombings in the Gaza Strip through the exploitation of people with “deviant beliefs.”
Well-informed sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the main accusation about the recent Gaza bombings might be formally directed at “elements of the Palestinian intelligence, who exploited these [persons].”
“There will be a full publication of the details of this crime, and when the picture is complete, we will find that it was planned to create a very dangerous image for Gaza,” Haniyeh said.