Ankara has asked a senior member of Hamas’ military wing based in Turkey to cut back on his anti-Israel terrorist activity, due to fears that otherwise, Washington will accuse it of abetting terror.

The request was transmitted to Saleh Aruri by Turkish intelligence, which is well aware of his activities.

Israel deported Aruri from the West Bank five years ago. Today, from his base in Turkey, he commands Hamas’ West Bank division, meaning he is responsible for building the organization’s terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank. His responsibilities include recruiting operatives, transferring money to them and giving them general instructions

Other Hamas operatives from the West Bank also live in Turkey, and Israeli defense officials recently said Hamas was running terrorist training camps in the country, while Turkish authorities turned a blind eye. This accusation apparently spurred the United States to demand explanations from Turkey, and in response, Ankara asked Aruri to lower the profile of his activities.

In May 2014, Israel arrested dozens of members of a major Hamas network in the West Bank. According to the Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet security service, this network took orders from Aruri, and had been planning attacks against Israel and possibly the Palestinian Authority. When Israel briefed PA President Mahmoud Abbas on the network, he was furious: Arab media outlets reported that he publicly assailed Hamas, with whom he had just signed a reconciliation agreement.

Aruri is not subordinate to Hamas’ military wing in the Gaza Strip and doesn’t take orders from its head, Mohammed Deif. He reports directly to Hamas’ supreme leadership, the Shura Council, and is close to Khaled Meshal, the Qatar-based head of Hamas’ political bureau.

Aruri’s lieutenants are veteran Hamas operatives from the West Bank who were deported to Gaza after being released from Israeli prisons in the 2011 swap for kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit. As far as is known, Hamas’ military wing has no centralized leadership in the West Bank anymore, due to the heavy pressure the organization has been under from both Israel and the PA over the last decade.

Working both together and separately, Israel and the PA have thwarted dozens of planned attacks in the West Bank that were initiated by Hamas commanders in Turkey and Gaza. The only major attack Hamas has managed to carry out in the West Bank in recent years was the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens last June. That was perpetrated by a Hebron-based cell which received money and general instructions from Gaza, but not detailed operational orders.

Hamas is currently having trouble training bomb-makers and recruiting suicide bombers, so it is focusing instead on shooting attacks and efforts to kidnap Israeli soldiers or civilians. But for now, the IDF and Shin Bet are more worried about attacks by “lone wolves” – individuals or groups with no connection to any terrorist organization. Lone-wolf attacks have claimed many more Israeli victims over the past two years than Hamas’ West Bank organization has done.