Senior Hamas official admits Israel attacks had been planned for years under guise of governing Gaza

Hamas planned attacks on Israel for at least two years under the guise of governing Palestinians in Gaza, a senior Hamas official told Russian media.

The interviewer interjected, "But all this was part of Hamas's strategy in preparing for this attack." Danielle Wallace is a reporter for Fox News Digital covering politics, crime, police and more. Story tips can be sent to danielle.wallace@fox.com and on Twitter: @danimwallace. 

"Of course," Baraka said, according to the translation by the Middle East Media Research Institute, a nonprofit press monitoring and analysis organization co-founded by a former Israeli military intelligence officer and an Israeli American political scientist. "We made them think that Hamas was busy with governing Gaza, and that it wanted to focus on the 2.5 million Palestinians [in Gaza], and has abandoned the resistance altogether."

"All the while, under the table, Hamas was preparing for this big attack," Baraka continued. "The rockets of the resistance cover all of Palestine. Where would [Netanyahu] take [the Israelis who were attacked]? To Tel Aviv? We bombed Tel Aviv on the very first day of the attack. Does he want to take them to the Galilee? The northern front – with Lebanon – has opened today. The Galilee is no longer safe for the Zionist enemy. We can bomb the Galilee from inside occupied Palestine."