Hamas Points Finger at Israel in Commander’s Assassination Attempt but Claim is Doubted

As expected, when a bomb attached to the car of Hamas’s Gaza Strip commander Tawfiq Abu Naim on Friday exploded but proved to be insufficient to kill him, Abu Naim’s colleagues were quick to point the terrorist organization’s collective finger at Israel. Also, as expected, Hamas called for revenge. But most observers believe the attempted hit was not the work of the Israelis, but rather part of a continuing feud with ISIS. The Islamic State’s motive is believed to be the recent arrests of its loyalists in the Gaza Strip as part of a round-up overseen by Abu Naim. Despite Hamas ascribing Israel’s interest in sabotaging the reconciliation between the Fatah and Hamas factions as the casus belli for the assassination, Israeli analysts doubt the incident went down in a way that is consistent with a typical targeted killing sanctioned by Jerusalem. Most also believe that between Israel and ISIS, the latter had the more compelling motivation to act. Abu Naim was jailed by Israel for security crimes until he was released from prison as part of the prisoner swap that saw more than 1,000 Palestinians released in exchange for the repatriation of captured soldier Gilad Shalit, many of whom have since returned to terrorism.