Since 2014, Iran has cultivated a terrorist group in Gaza called al-Sabirin (meaning “the patient ones”), which aims to compete with Hamas. Now, writes Khaled Abu Toameh, the group has also opened for business on the West Bank:
Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces recently uncovered a terror cell belonging to al-Sabirin in Bethlehem. . . . The suspects received money from the group’s members in the Gaza Strip in order to purchase weapons to attack Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank.
Al-Sabirin is not the only Iranian proxy whose eye is on the West Bank. Last month, in the West Bank city of Tulkarm, Israeli security forces uncovered and broke up a terrorist cell commanded by Hizballah, which was planning suicide bombings and shooting attacks. . . .
All of this sounds eerily familiar. . . . Iran has done much the same with its other proxies such as the Houthis in Yemen and members of the Shiite communities in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, all the while fomenting instability and gaining bases of local power. Freed from its sanction-based constrictions, Iran is now free to underwrite terror throughout the region. This is precisely what is happening in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.
Iran’s infiltration of the West Bank should serve as a red flag not only for Israel but also for the U.S. and other Western powers. . . . An Israeli pullout, leading to a Hamas takeover of the West Bank, has been a subject of concern. Now, a growing number of Israelis and Palestinians are wondering if such a vacuum will provide an opening for Iran.
Read more on Gatestone: http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7392/iran-west-bank-sabireen