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French President Emmanuel Macron told the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday that Hamas had “never been active in the West Bank,” making the claim while criticizing Israeli actions in the territory. The statement conflicts with decades of documented Hamas attacks, recruitment, financing and organized infrastructure in the West Bank.
Speaking from the UN podium, Macron said:
“Look at what’s happening in the West Bank — where day in and day out, we are seeing violations [by Israel]. And in the name of what? Hamas was never active in the West Bank.”
Two days earlier, French-Israeli citizen Netanel Shukrun, a father of six, had been shot dead at a natural spring near Neve Tzuf in the West Bank. Israeli security officials identified the suspected gunman, Qadri Samara, as a Hamas-affiliated operative.
Hamas’s West Bank Network Dates Back Decades
The public record reaches back well before the Second Intifada.
A 2004 U.S. Justice Department indictment alleged that in August 1992, Chicago-based Hamas financier Mohammed Salah met Hamas figures Mousa Abu Marzook and Mohammed Sawalha, in charge of Hamas terrorist operations within the West Bank, to discuss the need to “revitalize Hamas terrorist operations in the West Bank.”
The record is not confined to decades-old cases. An open-source compilation published Wednesday by Raylan Givens identified 150 Hamas attacks that either occurred in the West Bank or were launched by Hamas operatives and cells based there.
According to the compilation, the non-exhaustive database relies on official and open sources, including publicly available Shin Bet records, and includes only attacks for which Hamas responsibility could be substantiated. It counts at least 583 Israelis killed and 3,374 wounded.
Hamas Maintained a Headquarters for West Bank Attacks
In 2024, the Shin Bet revealed details about Hamas’ Gaza-based “West Bank Headquarters,” known in Hebrew as Matteh HaGada.
According to the agency, a department within that command directed and executed attacks in the West Bank during 2022 and 2023, including shootings at Eli, Kedumim, Huwara and near Hebron that killed eight Israelis.
Those victims were Harel Masoud, Elisha Antman, Ofer Feirman, Nachman Shmuel Mordoff, Shilo Amir, Shay Nigreker, Aviad Nir and Bat Sheva Nigri.
The Shin Bet said further intelligence analysis linked operatives from the same Hamas apparatus to at least 20 additional shooting attacks in the West Bank during 2023.
A Command Network in Turkey
Turkey has repeatedly appeared in Israeli and American investigations into Hamas’ West Bank infrastructure.
In 2014, the Shin Bet uncovered a large Hamas military infrastructure operating in Jerusalem and the West Bank that it said was directed by Hamas headquarters in Turkey.
The investigation resulted in the arrest of 93 Hamas operatives. Authorities seized 24 rifles, six pistols, seven rocket launchers, ammunition and more than 600,000 shekels.
The Shin Bet said the network’s West Bank leader, Riyad Nasser, had been recruited by Saleh al-Aruri, who at the time was operating from Turkey. The network allegedly intended to build armed capacity, destabilize the Palestinian Authority and carry out major attacks. More than two million shekels had been brought into the territory to acquire weapons and safe houses, according to the agency.
The same Turkey-based command structure has surfaced in more recent cases.
In March 2025, the Shin Bet announced the arrest of six Palestinians from Nablus who it said were operating under the direct guidance and financing of Hamas headquarters in Turkey. Investigators recovered an M16 rifle and tens of thousands of dollars. The cell was accused of planning shootings and bombings in the West Bank.
The Money Trail
U.S. Treasury records independently document a financial pipeline linking Hamas officials in Turkey to the West Bank.
In 2019, Treasury designated Turkey-based Zaher Jabarin, describing him as the head of Hamas’s Finance Office. According to Treasury, Jabarin developed a financial network in Turkey that enabled Hamas to “raise, invest, and launder money” before transferring it to Gaza and the West Bank.
Treasury said Jabarin had transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars into the West Bank to finance Hamas terrorist activity. It also identified him as one of Hamas’s principal contacts with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force.
In December 2023, Treasury designated another Turkey-based Hamas official, Haroun Nasser al-Din, saying he participated in a network transferring money from Turkey and Gaza to a Hamas command center in Hebron and worked with al-Aruri to finance Hamas activity in the West Bank.
Historically, the financing went well beyond individual couriers. Treasury said Hamas created the Union of Good shortly after the Second Intifada began to facilitate money transfers, with the organization moving tens of millions of dollars annually to Hamas-managed associations in the West Bank and Gaza.
Hamas cells remain active
In June 2025, the Shin Bet said it dismantled one of the largest Hamas infrastructures uncovered in the Hebron area in years. More than 60 operatives were arrested and roughly 10 cells were disrupted. Investigators said members had undergone firearms training, produced explosives, assembled bombs and collected intelligence on Israeli targets.
As recently as March 25, 2026, the Shin Bet reported breaking up a 10-member Hamas-affiliated cell from Beita near Nablus. Authorities said the cell had operated for roughly two years, carried out explosive attacks against Israeli forces and was planning additional shootings and a kidnapping. An M16 rifle, explosives and remotely operated bombs were seized.
That case extends a documented record spanning more than three decades. From the early 1990s through 2026, U.S. and Israeli records describe Hamas attacks, armed cells, recruitment, weapons, financing and command networks operating in or directed toward the West Bank.