WarSclerotic

The senior officials told Ynet on Monday that Barghouti is part of the “West Bank headquarters” of Hamas, which operates from the Gaza Strip to launch attacks in the West Bank under the leadership of Hamas second-in-command Saleh al-Arouri and Maher Obeid.The attacks claimed the lives of two IDF soldiers—Sergeant Yosef Cohen and Staff Sergeant Yovel Moryosef—and Amiad Israel Ish-Ran, a baby boy who died just days he was delivered prematurely due his mother’s gunshot wounds. A third soldier who was wounded in the Giv’at Asaf attack is still fighting for his life.

Jassar Barghouti is the uncle of Saleh Barghouti, one of the members of the cell that carried out the attack at Ofra, who was killed last week in an exchange of fire during an arrest operation by the Israel Police counter-terrorism unit Yamam.

Barghouti was one of the senior members of the Hamas military wing in the Ramallah area during the Second Intifada. He was one of the perpetrators of a shooting attack in the village of Ein Yabrud near Ramallah in 2003, in which three IDF soldiers were killed.

Sources say that Jasser Barghouti was responsible for setting up and directing the Hamas cells in the villages of Bir Zeit, Kubar and Mazra’a al-Gharbiyya, as these are in which areas he grew up and was therefore deeply familiar with the local population.

The sources, who are familiar with the security situation, say Jassar Barghouti is responsible for setting up and recruiting the firing squad that carried out the two deadly attacks last week, using his familial connections to Salah Barghouti, the gunman who was hunted and killed by Israeli troops following the attack.

Barghouti is responsible for directing other deadly attacks on Israelis. He was arrested and sentenced to nine life terms but released in 2011 he was released as part of the prisoner exchange for captured IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.

As Barghouti was seen as one of the most dangerous prisoners freed in the deal, Israel conditioned his release on immediate deportation to the Gaza Strip. After being deported to the Gaza Strip, Barghouti became involved the Hamas “West Bank headquarters.”