Shin Bet Chief Yoram Cohen said Hamas is preparing for another war with Israel. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – The Hamas terrorist group is facing a strategic predicament and has seen its status as the sovereign power in the Gaza Strip eroded, Yoram Cohen, the head of Israel’s Shin Bet security agency, told the Knesset Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday.

Cohen said Hamas has stepped up its preparations for a future military confrontation with Israel by resuming its tunnel-construction activities, renewing its development and production of rockets, increasing training, and intensifying its efforts to receive Iranian aid. He said Hamas is unlikely to launch an offensive against Israel now, but warned that it is capable of fighting Israel for an extended period in the event of flare-up.

The Shin Bet chief said that some of the funds that were supposed to go toward the rebuilding of civilian infrastructure in Gaza have been used instead to shore up Hamas’s military capabilities, which were badly damaged during last year’s war in the coastal territory.