Israel to Hamas: You’re still terrorists

The IDF has declared Hamas cabinet ministers fair game if they are found to be responsible for terror operations.

A refusal to recognize Israel’s right to exist and the Palestinian Authority’s continued support of terror activity has granted the IDF the legal right to target and strike the Hamas Palestinian leadership, a member of the IDF General Staff told The Jerusalem Post this week.

“This new reality, in which the PA supports terror, does not prevent terror and does not recognize Israel’s right to exist can legally allow for diplomatic and operational decisions that were not made in the past,” the officer said.
Hamas’s refusal to recognize previous agreements, including the Oslo Accords, signed by Israel and the PA, the officer said, constituted a “severe breach of contract” and placed the Palestinian leadership on the same footing as a terror group.

“If we used to make a distinction between the PA and terror groups,” the officer explained, “today we can make a legal distinction between the civilian population on the one hand, and the PA including the terror groups on the other.”

I wonder if that was the message that was being sent when a Hamas cabinet minister was arrested earlier:

Police released a minister in the Palestinians’ new Hamas government on Thursday morning after detaining him earlier in the day. It was the first time Israel has arrested a minister since the Cabinet was sworn in last week, Hamas officials said.

Khaled Abu Arafa, Minister of Jerusalem affairs, was detained for questioning along with his bodyguard when he was on his way to the town of Azariya, located between Jerusalem and Ma’aleh Edumim, where he was planning to open an office, the Hamas officials said.

Israeli defense officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed Abu Arafa had been taken into custody. The reason for the arrest, said a security establishment official, was that as a resident of east Jerusalem, Abu arafa was prohibited from entering the West Bank.

Wheels within wheels. And then we have yet more terror attacks thwarted:

Security services announced on Thursday that the IDF apprehended a Palestinian woman in Nablus on Wednesday who was on her way to carry out a suicide bombing in Israel.

One day earlier, a Palestinian man and woman who had planned to carry out a similar terror attack were also arrested in Nablus.

Say, I thought all those polls insist that the palestinians want peace with Israel.