Jordanian officials have detained twenty-one Muslim Brotherhood operatives, who have been charged with smuggling weapons and cash into the disputed West Bank region, according to reports in Arabic media.
The Muslim Brotherhood operatives were accused of attempting to create a military organization in the West Bank akin to terror group Hamas in Gaza, according to Al-Hayat News. Two of the MB members were reportedly in Gaza for training prior to arming the West Bank citizens. A source told Al Hayat, “these two young men tried to train other Muslim Brotherhood members in order to carry out operations,” and transfer weapons into the West Bank.
The news of the MB members’ charges comes just days after Israel’s Shin Bet internal security services (equivalent to U.S. FBI) announced that they had uncovered a Hamas plot to conduct a terror attack in Jerusalem’s Teddy soccer stadium. The Shin Bet arrested dozens of Hamas members who were operating in the West Bank, which communicated through a headquarters in Turkey–a State known as a close ally of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Hamas spokesman Saleh Al-Alouri commented on the matter, denying that his terror group had a hand in organizing the attacks. “Hamas has committed not to operate from Jordan or in Jordan,” he told Al Jazeera. “Jordan is not an area of activity for it, and Jordan’s security agencies know our commitment to this. Our sphere of activity and resistance is Palestine, and our enemy is the Zionist occupation,” added Al-Alouri
The recent news, which highlights the cooperation and coordination between Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, casts doubts over claims frequently posed by outlets such as Al Jazeera: that the MB is only a Political Islamist group, and not a violent one.
In Article 2 of its founding charter, which has never been amended, Hamas described itself as “one of the wings of the Muslim Brotherhood.”
Jordan has recently debated banning the Brotherhood from its country entirely. Both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have listed the MB as a terrorist group in their nations.
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