Hamas ended the “truce” before the Gaza beach incident

Amos Harel writes an analysis of the coming Hamas offensive. The most interesting part of it:

The first decision to break the hudna came earlier this month. One contributing factor was the Hamas argument that PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ call for a referendum over the Prisoners’ Document must be neutralized.

At first, the military wing of Hamas operated under cover of the Resistance Committees in Gaza, which obtained rockets from Hamas ammunition stores to fire at Israel. After last Friday’s incident on the beach in northern Gaza in which seven members of the Ghalia family were killed, Hamas decided to launch an open offensive against Israel. Hamas is also refusing to cooperate with Israel on its comprehensive investigation into the beach incident, and has collected various objects from the site of the explosion.

The decision had already been made. Hamas had been working with the PRC and PIJ, as has been pointed out here and elsewhere. The Gaza Beach incident (which may have been a work accident, and not the result of Israeli shells) was simply the excuse, just as Ariel Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount was simply the excuse made to launch the already-planned second “intifada.”

So who made the decisions?

An analysis of the situation leads to the conclusion that the decision to launch the offensive was made by Khaled Meshal, the Damascus-based political leader of Hamas, and the Gaza-based heads of the organization’s military wing. Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, also of Hamas, was informed of the decision and did not object to it.

Perhaps Lair Simon should make a new Bingo card, and put the palestinian leadership on it. The clock is ticking.

And no, you won’t read a word about this in any mainstream newspaper. They simply don’t care about the Israeli side.