Hamas' "political wing" calls for more terror attacks

From Hamas' Qassam Brigades site:

Member of Hamas's political bureau Saleh Aruri called on the armed wings of the Palestinian factions in the West Bank for more heroic operations that could inflict painful blows on the Israeli occupation and its lackeys, and torpedo their conspiracies.

Aruri made his remarks in a press release commenting on Israel's assassination of Mohamed Asi, a resistance fighter, on Tuesday morning.

The Hamas official highlighted that the resistance in all its forms are the only option to liberate the land and restore dignity and the usurped rights.

For his part, Abu Obeida, the spokesman for the armed wing of Hamas Al-Qassam Brigades, mourned the death of Mohamed Asi, who were killed yesterday in armed clashes with Israeli soldiers west of Ramallah.

Spokesman Abu Obeida said that there are men in the West Bank waiting for the moment of the popular explosion in the face of the Israeli occupation.

"The occupied West Bank is like embers under the ashes, where there are resilient resistance and living martyrs waiting for a moment of explosion in the face of the occupation," the spokesman said.

Hamas seems to be motivated to try to activate terror cells in the West Bank for a few reasons.

For one, it is afraid that the peace talks might pan out.

Secondly, Hamas is under constant pressure to keep Gazans happy while maintaining its terrorist credibility. For example, yesterday Hamas denied rumors that the Gaza power plant was going to shut down, and it just so happens that an Israeli supplier sold 400,000 liters of diesel for use in the power plant. But Hamas can't be seen as cooperating with Israel even implicitly so it needs to encourage terror in places where it won't have to pay the consequences.

Thirdly, Hamas wants the balance of power in the West Bank to swing back in its direction. "Successful" terror attacks have historically been hailed by the Palestinian Arabs across the political spectrum, with very rare exceptions.

Both Hamas and Islamic Jihad have claimed that Mohamed Asi, the Tel Aviv bus bomber, was part of their group and that they were responsible for the operation.