Hamas probably is not responsible for the recent escalation of missile attacks on Israel and may even be trying to prevent them. However, it still will be the target of retaliation, a senior Israeli military officer told Reuters Thursday.

The officer, who was quoted on the basis of anonymity, said rival terrorist groups, smaller than Hamas, are likely behind the attacks.

The IDF routinely states that Hamas is responsible for all terrorist activity since it is the de facto authority in Gaza since it overthrew the rival Fatah terrorist faction nearly eight years ago.

Evidence of smaller groups was exposed by the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) on Wednesday, when it revealed that it arrested in December three Palestinian Authority terrorists, including the ringleader who tried to create the cell from his Israeli jail cell and was in contact with a Gaza terrorist  under the direction of Hamas.

The Holy Warriors Brigade, was financed and trained by Hamas, which in effect was a front for the cell, security officers said.

The IDF has suggested several times over the past two years that Hamas is losing control of Gaza and that  it is unable to influence other terrorist groups to increase or decrease attacks on Israel.

The latest round of missile attacks spiked with five launches towards Ashkelon late Wednesday night, with the Iron Dome system intercepting the incoming rockets.

“We won’t go back to a situation where three or four times a week the red alarm sounds in southern Israeli towns,” the military source told Reuters.

Last week I noted that an Islamic Jihad terrorist was killed in Gaza in what every Arab newspaper called an Israeli strike, either from a drone or artillery. I cannot find a single report that gives any other possible reason for his death.

The IDF denied any activity in Gaza at the time.

Here we have a clear case of “he said, she said” – Israeli spokespeople versus Gaza’s health ministry spokesman and other Gaza witnesses.

From years of watching the region, I was quite certain that the IDF was telling the truth and the Arabs were lying. Yet there are plenty of people out there who assume that every Israeli statement is a lie and they believe every single Arab claim, despite years of evidence showing the exact opposite.

So who was telling the truth this time?

PCHR publishes a weekly report of supposed Israeli crimes. If they don’t mention something, it didn’t happen.

They don’t mention anything about anyone being killed on January 8.

This is hardly the first time that Gaza’s health ministry was found to lie. Maybe one day the world’s media will know not to believe a word they say.

Aw, who am I kidding?

Visit Elder of Ziyon.

Israel’s Supreme Court has given Justice Minister Tzipi Livni one week to respond to a lawsuit by an Israeli NGO representing victims of Palestinian terror victims in a case against the Bank of China.

On Tuesday, the court put its time mandate on Livni hours after the Shurat HaDin-Israel Law Center filed a suit requesting information issued by the New York District Court under the Hague Convention on the Taking of Evidence Abroad in Civil or Commercial Matters.

In November, the Israeli government filed a petition with the U.S. federal court seeking to block the testimony of former Israeli intelligence official Uzi Shaya, saying he would divulge state secrets.

Shaya, according to reports, in 2005 alerted Chinese security officials to suspicious transactions, including transfers of money to terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Some 22 families of victims of Palestinian suicide bombers who brought the suit accuse the Bank of China of funding terrorist organizations through U.S. accounts. They are seeking millions of dollars in damages; a guilty verdict under anti-terrorism laws also could affect the bank’s ability to continue conducting business in the United States.

The families, through Shurat HaDin director Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, requested specific documents from the justice minister last June as well as the testimony of Shaya. No response or documents have been forthcoming, according to Shurat HaDin

“We have filed this suit today as we believe Minister Livni is culpable not only of failing in her duties under the Hague Convention, but of failing the Israeli victims of Palestinian terrorism in their quest for justice,” Darshan-Leitner said in a statement Tuesday.

A similar case against the bank was brought by the family of American student Daniel Wultz, who was killed in a 2006 terror attack in Tel Aviv.

Hamas claims an Islamic Jihad terrorist was killed in Gaza, but since the IDF said it did not carry out any counter-terrorist operations, either the story is phony or he died while working with explosives.

Hamas’ Health Ministry said that Mohammed al-Lila was killed in a drone attack on Gaza City. Islamic Jihad confirmed one of its members was killed, while military spokesmen said, “The IDF did not carry out overnight any air strikes and is not aware of any artillery fire or other shooting.”

The IDF has no reason to deny a counter terrorist attack, leaving open the possibility that nothing happened at all.

It would not be the first time that Hamas lied. It has previously been proven beyond a shadow of any doubt that some of the “victims” of the Israeli army died natural deaths or were killed while preparing bombs to use against Israel.

Given the propaganda wear against Israel that is spinning out of control amid the media vultures’ reports on Israel having the nerve to say “no” to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and on Israel having the audacity not to accept illegal infiltrators as “refugees,” today’s report of the Islamic Jihad terrorists won’t be the last.

The Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) has lifted a gag order and revealed that security forces arrested 14 suspects, including four senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad members, in the bombing of a Bat Yam bus near Tel Aviv last month.

The four Islamic Jihad terrorists are from Bethlehem, between Jerusalem and Gush Etzion, and Bedouin from the Negev, with Israeli citizenship, were among others who were arrested.

Two brothers belonging to the Islamic Jihad, Shahada Tamari (previously jailed in Israel), 24, and Hamadi Tamari, a Palestinian police officer (also previously jailed in Israel), 21, and Yousef Salamah, 22, made the remote-control bomb with four pounds of explosives and nails and screws to inflict maximum injuries.

The bomb was in a black bag that they gave to the fourth Islamic Jihad terrorist, Sami Harimi, 20, who took it with him to the southern Hevron Hills, where the security fence is relatively ineffective, with hundreds of Arabs bypassing it every day to enter Be’er Sheva and the coastal regions.

Screws, nails ball bearings and other metal pieces that were inside the bomb to maximize the number of people injured and killed.

A Negev Bedouin, who carries Israeli citizenship, drove him to Jaffa. Harimi knew the Jaffa-Tel Aviv area well because he worked in a restaurant in Jaffa, without a permit.

The terrorists prayed in a mosque before Harimi boarded a public bus with the bag and then left it there when he got off at another stop.

He then called the mobile phone number that was attached to the bomb, setting it off.

The attack would have caused massive casualties if it had not been for three people who together saved many lives. A child told a passenger that someone had left a bag on the bus, and the passenger in turn was curious and noticed wires sticking out of the bag. He told the bus driver, who immediately cleared everyone off the bus.

Moments later, the bus blew up.

Security personnel arrested Harimi in Bethlehem several days after the attack, and he revealed that the Islamic Jihad terrorists were planning to stage a large-scale terrorist attack in Tel Aviv after the buys bombing.

The investigation by the Shin Bet and the subsequent arrests foiled a second attack, which could have caused a disaster because security personnel found an additional 45 pounds of explosive near the home of one of the Tamari brothers.

More arrests are expected.

Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas said last week that he will demand that Israel release all terrorists,including those who might be arrested during John Kerry’s peace talk festival.

Kerry landed in Israel Thursday evening, less than six hours before the Shin Bet lifted the gag order on the arrests.

Two Hamas terrorists were wounded Monday afternoon in a “work accident” explosion at a training camp of one of the local terrorist organizations in the Gaza City area.

Sources in Gaza said that a fire broke out after the explosion. The extent of the terrorists’ wounds are not known.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel on Wednesday of escalating violence and trying to block the “peace process” by killing terrorists.

The IDF on Wednesday shot and killed two Palestinian Authority Arabs, one of them who was on the payroll of the PA security forces, after they shot at soldiers trying to arrest an Islamic and a Hamas terrorist.

Abbas’ spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeneh charged Israel with carrying out a “dangerous…escalation” that will bring negotiations to a dead end,” which is where they have been ever since they resumed in July.

Terrorists from Gaza attacked southern Israel Sunday afternoon with two mortar shells, but the government and the IDF have not commented. No damage or injuries were reported.

The attacks may have been timed with the expected release of more terrorists this week as part of the four-stage plan Israel announced in July to free 104 terrorists in return for the privilege of Israeli negotiators sitting down to talk with their Palestinian Authority counterparts.

Hamas, which rules Gaza, would like nothing more than to embarrass the rival Fatah movement, headed by the Obama administration’s peace partner known as Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas, and cause casualties on the Israeli side that might abort the second stage of the plan.

The military policy, dictated by the Defense Ministry, has been to “retaliate” for every mortar attack by bombing a weapon storage depot or a tunnel, leaving a few hundred other “terror sites” remaining. After all, if Israel were to knock all of them out, what could the IDF do next time around when Hamas or Islamic Jihad terrorists strike the country with missiles and mortar shells? Invading Gaza or bombing areas where terrorists hang out among civilians would be considered a “disproportionate” response.

That strategy goes by the boards if, God forbid, one of those mortar shells or Kassam missiles explodes on a kindergarten.

But as long as that does not happen, Israelis living in the Gaza Belt region continue to be victims of the government’s version of Russian roulette.

In between the mortar shell and Kassam rocket attacks, there is no scarcity of attempts to kill soldiers. The IDF last week prevented a possible mass casualty attack when soldiers discovered a large roadside bomb that was intended to be detonated as a vehicle drove by. Army sappers neutralized the explosives, and no one was hurt.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu does not want to rock the boat right now and punish Hamas, face an escalation in terrorist attacks and then risk a suspension of the talks, which are being conducted under the misguided hand of President Barack Obama’s personal Middle East envoy Martin Indyk.

The Prime Minister is dead-set to go through with the second round of freeing terrorists even though it has all of the right reasons not do so. The Cabinet agreed in July to spread out the release of terrorists to test the Palestinian Authority’s ability and intentions to preserve the peace, at least until all of the terrorists are safely home where they can return to terror.

Since the start of the talks, terrorists have murdered four Israelis and tried to murder several others, including a nine-year-old girl.

Prime Minister Netanyahu told the Cabinet Sunday morning, “We have to honor government decisions even if it is difficult and unpleasant; we can’t constantly change our stance.”

But which promise? No, not the promise that Abbas keep up his end of the agreement.

The only promise that Israel has to keep is the one that Netanyahu made to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to resume the so-called negotiations.

There is one other promise that Netanyahu may keep, although almost a year late. He said earlier this year than 3,000 more homes would be built for Jews in Judea and Samaria and in parts of Jerusalem that Abbas wants to turn into the capital of a Palestinian Authority state without any Jewish residents.

To this date, zero new homes have been built in PA-claimed Jerusalem, Efrat, Maaleh Adumim, Kiryat Arba, Beitar Illit and other cities. There have been announcements of new homes, which is good material to keep the nationalists in line, but facts on the ground equal zilch.

In the horse trading that reduces the human factor to a piece of paper on which Abbas can sign another agreement to be tossed in the waste can , Netanyahu is prepared to start building homes in return for freeing terrorists.

Once upon a time, Israel negotiated with terrorists by killing them.

Then, Israel started trading them for a handful of Israelis who had been kidnapped.

And the Olmert government under the leaderless Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, agreed to release heavy-duty terrorists for corpses of IDF soldiers.

Two years ago, the Netanyahu government freed 1,000 terrorists for the release of a single soldier, Gilad Shalit.