This is what gestures of good will get you. “Prisons ‘schools’ for Hamas, say security sources,” by Amos Harel in Haaretz, July 27:
Security forces have received a number of warnings of possible terror attacks in the West Bank and within the Green Line by Hamas activists recently released from Israeli jails, a senior Israel Defense Forces officer said over the weekend.
The IDF and the Shin Bet security service have seen efforts by Hamas over the past few months to rehabilitate its military infrastructure in the West Bank. The organization was hit hard by a wave of arrests and targeted killings undertaken Israel between 2001 and 2005.
Previously, in the intifada’s early years, Hamas had been dominant in terms of the scope of terror attacks it initiated. The balance of power shifted due to the damage Hamas suffered, and since 2004, Islamic Jihad, particularly its network in Jenin and Tul Karm, has become the most dangerous group in the territories.
Now the picture has changed again, thanks to two developments: Islamic Jihad itself has been hit hard in recent years, and a large number of lower-level Hamas activists have recently been released from Israeli jails after serving sentences of about five years for relatively minor, intifada-related crimes.
An undetermined but apparently large number of these ex-convicts return to terrorism, employing new techniques picked up on the inside from veteran prisoners. The army and the Shin Bet say that most of these activists are quick to begin setting up new networks to carry out major attacks….