Clear rules of the game have emerged in Gaza over the past two months – rules from which Israel and Hamas rarely deviated. Every Friday, and sometimes in midweek too, Hamas sent masses to protest along the border fence with Israel. Despite over 100 Palestinians being killed and thousands more being wounded by Israeli gunfire, Hamas preferred to confine the clash to the border fence. Not only did the organization not fire rockets into Israel; it also forbade the other Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip from committing revenge attacks. Hamas’ calculation was clear: It did not want to damage the narrative it was selling of a popular Palestinian struggle confronting Israeli snipers – even though, under cover of the protests, explosives were planted on the fence and members of Hamas’ military wing led mass attempts to breach the border. Open gallery view Israelis standing in a kindergarten yard damaged by mortar shells fired from the Gaza Strip, May 29, 2018. Credit: \ AMIR COHEN/ REUTERS >> Follow all latest updates on Gaza flare-up In retrospect, it appears Hamas began to alter its approach after the pre-Nakba Day events of May 14, when over 60 Palestinians were killed. The large number of dead drew greater international attention, but still the organization failed to breach the Israeli border fence or break the blockade on Gaza (except for a temporary easing of restraints when Egypt opened the Rafah Crossing for Ramadan). In the past two weeks, there have been many more incidents by the fence. Hamas cells were sent to the border to sabotage Israel Defense Forces equipment and sites along the tunnel barrier being built by the Defense Ministry, and planted more explosives. In some cases, the militants were seemingly from Hamas; in other cases, they came from other organizations. The IDF maintains that all of these moves were made with Hamas’ approval, and often at its behest. Open gallery view Credit: Haaretz Credit: Israel Army Spokesperson This increase in incidents along the fence led to a more forceful Israeli response: On Sunday, after a bomb was planted by the fence, an IDF tank shot at and killed three Islamic Jihad militants who were at an adjacent observation post. In a separate incident on Monday, a member of Hamas’ military wing was killed by IDF fire. In the past, Islamic Jihad would insist on a response whenever Israel hit its members – and it did so again this time. On Tuesday morning, that threat was realized. At about 7 A.M., Islamic Jihad fired dozens of mortars throughout the area near the border. Many were intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile defense system. This is further proof of the improvements that have been made to the system, which originally was not intended to deal with mortar threats from just a few kilometers away, but rather Qassam and Katyusha rockets. There were no Israeli injuries from the morning barrage, although one mortar did land in the yard of a kindergarten. It’s not hard to imagine what might have happened – and how Israel would have responded – had the mortar landed there just 30 minutes later, when parents would have been bringing their children in. Israel responded in the afternoon with a more intensive operation than usual compared to recent years, but one that was still limited in scope. The air force bombed 30 Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets in seven military compounds. The army highlighted the large number of targets and the fact that they were bombed in broad daylight. But the fact that no one was injured in the Gaza bombardments shows the IDF is still being very cautious and seeking to avoid any deaths that would lead to a further escalation. As the airstrikes were proceeding, the IDF also demolished another Hamas attack tunnel – the 10th it has destroyed in the last six months. This time, it was a tunnel Hamas had dug into Egyptian territory from south of Rafah and from there back into Israel. The extent of its infiltration into Israeli territory was apparently unprecedented – it reached some 900 meters (2,950 feet) past the border. These details evidently were of less concern to the Palestinian organizations. In the afternoon, another barrage of mortars and short-range 107mm Katyushas were fired at Israel. And this time there were casualties on the Israeli side: six lightly to moderately wounded by shrapnel. This was the biggest strike on the Gaza border communities since the end of Operation Protective Edge in August 2014. And given the way things go between Israel and Gaza, an Israeli response should be expected soon. Open gallery view Smoke rising following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, May 29, 2018. Credit: \ SUHAIB SALEM/ REUTERS Hamas calling the shots in Gaza Over the past four years, during which there have been several periods of escalation, Israeli intelligence has maintained that Hamas does not have full control over what happens in Gaza, and that when rockets were fired at Israel, Hamas had trouble exerting its authority over the smaller Palestinian factions. The circumstances are different now. For the past few months, Hamas has demonstrated ironclad control and orchestrated the border protests – which began as an independent action by Gazan activists – at will. The scale of the protests changed in accordance with dictates from above: A day of clashes that left dozens dead might have be followed by days in which there was hardly any violence. Because the IDF foresaw an Islamic Jihad response and issued a warning about it on Sunday, Hamas probably understood this – and its leadership permitted the rocket fire, at least by turning a blind eye to it. With the back-and-forth blows of the past 24 hours, the rules that Hamas set during the last two months of protests are being shaken. As a result, Hamas will now have a harder time depicting the Palestinian actions as just a popular uprising. As soon as Islamic Jihad entered the picture, it was no surprise that mortars and rockets were fired – especially as the organization is funded by Iran, which has its own reasons for wanting to maintain an escalation in the south since being forced to rein in its moves against Israel in Syria. The military clash will also affect the protests themselves, which are expected to resume this weekend. Hamas has already announced its intention to organize a major effort at the border fence on June 5, in connection with the 51st anniversary of the Six-Day War. The “Flotilla of Return” that Hamas organized for Tuesday, as a statement of its opposition to the naval blockade of Gaza, has so far generated little media interest. Tuesday’s exchanges of fire overshadowed recent efforts to obtain a long-term cease-fire in return for civilian and economic benefits for the Gaza Strip. Now, the mediators – but mainly Egypt – will focus on stopping the reciprocal attacks, in order to avert a war. The images from the Gaza border communities are difficult to see and far beyond what has been the norm of recent years. But the situation does not yet appear to be inevitably leading toward war. The main reason for this is that the Israeli leadership does not see any achievable goal in a Gaza war, considering the price Israel would have to pay. With the exception of MK Bezalel Smotrich (Habayit Hayehudi), no one seems eager to reoccupy Gaza and resurrect the Gush Katif settlements. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is still concerned about the crisis in the north with Syria and Iran, while the army would prefer to complete construction on the Gaza tunnel barrier – which continued even Tuesday – before entering into any military confrontation. The government would never admit this aloud, but in most periods of tension it sees Hamas as a fairly comfortable adversary, given that the main alternative – anarchy that would make the 2 million residents of Gaza Israel’s responsibility again – looks even more dangerous. As for the ideas about a new Palestinian government in Gaza, for now these are just on paper. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas might be able to assume power there, but he doesn’t want to.<doc-sep>cnxps.cmd.push(function () { cnxps({ playerId: '36af7c51-0caf-4741-9824-2c941fc6c17b' }).render('4c4d856e0e6f4e3d808bbc1715e132f6'); }); if(window.location.pathname.indexOf("656089") != -1){console.log("hedva connatix");document.getElementsByClassName("divConnatix")[0].style.display ="none";} Members of Israel's security cabinet offered differing, and even contradictory, solutions to the ongoing confrontation between Israel and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.Speaking on Army Radio Thursday morning, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said that "there is a very good chance, certainly after the past several weeks," for a large-scale military confrontation between Israel and Hamas this summer, "to reestablish calm and to achieve a long-term deterrent. ""It is very possible that there will be no other choice, and we will be forced in the next several months to enter a large-scale operation against the Gaza Strip," Erdan said.The past three months have seen escalating tensions between Israel and the Hamas-governed Palestinian coastal enclave, beginning with the mass "Great March of Return" protests along the border fence separating Israel from Gaza and the IDF's deadly response, which killed dozens of Palestinians, including journalists and medical personnel. Hundreds of mortars and rockets have been fired at Israeli communities in the Gaza border region, and Israel Air Force strikes on Hamas positions in Gaza has been the largest since the Israeli incursion in Gaza in Operation Protective Edge in 2014.In recent weeks, Palestinians in Gaza been been launching incendiary kites and explosive balloons that have set Israeli farms, communities and nature preserves on fire. "Just as the IDF fires at those who approach fence and threaten to cross it, whether they are young or old, and a terrorist isa terrorist, the same holds for those who launch terror kites that burn fields and perhaps houses, and with explosives attached," Erdan said. "The people who coordinate these cells are Hamas, their age is not relevant. ""The IDF's solution to extract a price from Hamas and to strike its infrastructure... and targeted killings ofHamas leaders, whether in the militant wing or the political wing, this also prevents the new kite terror," Erdan said.But in a separate interview with Israel public broadcaster Kan Thursday morning, Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz, who is also a member of the security cabienet, advocated taking steps to relieve the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, rather than launch a new military engagement. "There are humanitarian issues, and we are examining ways to ease the situation," Steinitz said. "We can provide more water and more electricity, but... the other side is not functioning. You don't want to reconquer Gaza to connect them to water and electricity. "Steinitz raised the possibility of establishing a designated port for Gaza, under Israeli security supervision, on nearby Cyprus, and making use of the tax funds that Israel passes to the Palestinian Authority to pay for Gaza's electricity and even salaries. Steinitz accused PA President Mahmoud Abbas of deliberately blocking salary payments to Gazans in order to increase tensions between Gaza and Israel. "We can't ask Israeli citizens to pay Gaza's electric bill," Steinitz said. "We did not disengage from Gaza in order to reengage with Gaza. Gaza needs to be connected with the world," he said.<doc-sep>Israel’s army and militants in Gaza have engaged in their heaviest attacks since the 2014 war in an escalation of violence that followed weeks of bloodshed at Palestinian protests along the frontier. On Tuesday morning, militants fired close to 30 mortar shells into Israel’s south, the largest such assault since 2014. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) fighter jets responded with strikes on more than 35 sites it said belonged to Gaza’s rulers, Hamas, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad faction. Further salvoes of rocket fire were later launched into Israel. Israeli rocket warning sirens continued sounding late into the afternoon. “This is definitely the biggest barrage of rockets and mortar fire to Israel since Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014,” said IDF spokesman Lt Col Jonathan Conricus. “And equally, it is also the largest IDF response, or retaliatory attack.” The IDF said three of its soldiers were wounded, one moderately, in Tuesday’s attacks and evacuated to hospital. Conricus estimated Israel’s Iron Dome aerial defence system had intercepted up to 25 projectiles. Late on Tuesday, Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad group issued a rare joint statement, claiming shared responsibility for the mortar barrage. They accused Israel of beginning “this round of escalation” by targeting their installations in the past two days. It was the first time the armed wing of Hamas had claimed responsibility for such attacks out of Gaza since the 2014 war. There were no immediate reports of injuries in Gaza from the airstrikes. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had pledged to respond “with great force” following the Tuesday morning mortar strikes. He blamed the attack on Hamas and Islamic Jihad, saying Israel would “exact a heavy price from anyone who tries to attack it”. A projectile damaged a kindergarten building before the children had arrived and Israel told citizens in the area to be no further than a 15-second dash away from a shelter. Israel’s intelligence minister, Yisrael Katz, said the country was “closest to the threshold of war” since 2014. “We don’t want it, and the other side doesn’t either, but we have our red lines,” he told Israel’s Army Radio. Frontier regions have been tense during the past two months as demonstrators in Gaza have massed along the border to protest against blockades imposed by Israel and Egypt, and the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem. They are also demanding rights for Palestinian refugees and their descendants. Israel’s army has killed more than 110 people, most of them shot by snipers at the protests, but also in airstrikes and by tank fire. Thousands have been shot in the legs, medics have said. The Israeli government has rejected repeated calls for independent investigations into the bloodshed and blames Hamas for using the rallies as cover to break through the perimeter fence. Throughout the demonstrations, Israel’s army has reported machine-gun fire from Gaza hitting buildings around the strip and militants have planted improvised explosive devices along the perimeter. Using tanks and fighter jets, the Israeli military has repeatedly bombed Gaza following such incidents. Hamas, which fought three wars with Israel and backs the frontier rallies, had not fired rockets since protests began on 30 March and no Israeli has been killed during the mass movement. With a pattern of attack and counterattacks on Tuesday, there are concerns the violence could deteriorate into a fresh round of conflict. In a statement, the IDF said its forces had hit seven locations across the strip on Tuesday, including six military compounds, munition storage warehouses and naval targets. It also said jets had destroyed a tunnel it said was dug by Hamas that curved underground into Egypt to the south and back north into Israeli territory. “Various rockets and mortars [were] fired against Israel from the morning hours. Some of them were fired by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and some by Hamas, from their perspective, in response to our attacks that are of course ongoing,” said Conricus. He said commanders had no intention of escalating the situation but said “quiet will be met with quiet, hostility will be met with an appropriate response”. Separately on Tuesday, Palestinians launched boats from Gaza to protest against Israel’s naval blockade. The Israeli army said it had intercepted the boats, apprehended 17 people on board and would tow the vessel to port. Medical personnel were assigned to treat any sick Palestinians on board and, following an inquiry, the group would be returned back to Gaza.<doc-sep>
The night of exchanges of fire on the Gaza border indicates a fundamental change in the security situation there. Israel and Hamas are now in a completely different reality than the one that prevailed in the Gaza Strip for almost four years since the end of Operation Protective Edge. The main achievement of that operation from Israel’s point of view – relative calm that gradually restored a sense of security to those living near the Gaza border – is eroding. It has been replaced by violent demonstrations, riddled with casualties on the Palestinian side, burning kites that torch Israeli fields and groves, and now rockets and mortars. >> Nine Reasons the Israel-Palestine Struggle Cannot Be Solved | Opinion This is the second time in less than three weeks that Palestinian organizations, led by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have launched a unusually high number of rockets and mortar shells into the Negev. On May 29, there were more than 150; on Tuesday night, 45. The way these things develop is familiar; when the time between flare-ups is reduced and the numbers reach such levels, the road to another Protective Edge-type operation gets shorter. Yet this is not a decree of fate. The summer of 2018 is not identical to the summer of 2014. In both cases, Israeli intelligence believed that Hamas had no interest in starting a war. But four years ago, the flames were actually fanned by fumes from the West Bank – the kidnapping and murder of the three boys in Gush Etzion. When the bodies of the youths were discovered, a war atmosphere prevailed in the public and political arena, which also intensified the government’s responses to the tension with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. A week later, the war broke out. This time, despite the anger over the burned fields, the intensity of the pressure is not the same. The effort exerted by Hamas to promote the demonstrations near the fence since the end of March has not yielded much benefit. The casualties drew international condemnation and somewhat greased the wheels of the BDS movement, but did not produce practical concessions by Israel. It was the kites, a simpler method, with which Hamas was able to circumvent the IDF’s blocking maneuvers along the fence. The army, in an attempt to stop the launch of the incendiary kites and balloons, began firing warning shots near the squad members preparing them. When that did not help, the IDF began attacking Hamas strongholds and warehouses. Now Hamas and Islamic Jihad are trying to change the response equation, as they announced Wednesday. From now on, they said, every Israeli air strike will be met with rocket and mortar fire into the Negev. Some of Hamas’ considerations relate to internal Palestinian concerns. The opening of the Rafah crossing by the Egyptians during Ramadan somewhat eased the pressure (the Egyptians also allowed more than 800 trucks of supplies into the Gaza Strip). But the Hamas leadership in Gaza is concerned with the dire situation of Gaza’s infrastructure, combined with the economic sanctions imposed against it, including the Palestinian Authority’s cuts to the salaries of its own officials in the Gaza Strip. In the coming month, the staff salaries at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) will also be significantly reduced due to U.S. enmity toward the agency. This is dealing a huge blow to the income of workers in the Gaza Strip. It seems that at least part of Hamas’ message is thus aimed at the PA, through Israel. Hamas believes that Israel, for its own reasons, is not eager for a military confrontation in the Gaza Strip and that the continued military friction might spur Israel to help it to obtain more money, including from PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Meanwhile Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s propagandists are attacking the army for being soft on Gazan terror, from the kites to the rockets – as if the government isn’t the one determining the policy toward the Strip. At an officers’ graduation ceremony Wednesday, Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman were content to make general threats. Expressing public support for the army gives them nothing to build on, of course. Education Minister Naftali Bennett continues to demand direct hits on the kite launchers, who are “not innocent 8-year-olds,” as he puts it. But the political echelon’s orders remain the same: The north is more important than Gaza, and in Gaza the story is blocking and containment.