Gaza Developments Portend Military Escalation with Israel
- Gaza Developments Portend Military Escalation with Israel
by It took only two weeks for the first exchange of fire of 2020 between Israel and the Gaza Strip. The confrontation came Jan. 15, just one day after the Israel Defense Forces released its annual intelligence assessment, which — to no one’s surprise — did not rule out the potential for short rounds of confrontation with the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.
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Israeli aircraft bombed Hamas targets the evening of Jan. 15, after four rockets were launched from Gaza toward settlements in southern Israel. No Palestinian or Israeli casualties were recorded.
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In response to Israel’s retaliation, the so-called night confusion units of the Palestinian resistance factions resumed their activities Jan. 19 near the eastern border. Several Palestinians launched dozens of explosive devices and booby-trapped balloons toward the Israeli army and settlements there.
The confusion units consist of hundreds of Palestinians who head to the border areas in the first hours of the night, shooting firecrackers, beating drums, playing national songs on speakers and honking their car horns to disturb nearby Israeli soldiers and settlers. (The units had halted their activities in March when Egypt asked Israel to improve Gaza living conditions and implement the understandings between Hamas and Israel in October 2018 to ease the Gaza blockade.)
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Also possibly adding to the current tension, an Egyptian security delegation, whose arrival date in Gaza was announced to be Jan. 6, failed to show. Some observers said this was due to Egypt’s anger after Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh visited Iran that day, though the Hamas politburo denied any hostility. Taher al-Nono, Haniyeh’s media adviser, also said in a Jan. 19 press statement that there is no tension. He stressed that the relationship between Hamas and Egypt is stable and that they continue to coordinate on all issues.
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But as for Hamas and Israel, tension rose even more Jan. 21, as the Israeli army shot dead three Palestinians it said threw an explosive device at Israeli forces and tried to cross the border near the Kissufim settlement. Palestinian factions in Gaza have yet to comment on the incident, which is adding more fuel to the fire there.
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Mohammed al-Brim Abu Mujahid, a spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees, told Al-Monitor, “The resistance is monitoring the security situation in Gaza and along its borders, and will not stop pressuring Israel until it complies with what is required of it to ease the siege. Should the Israeli responses escalate by bombing the military resistance sites, we may resort to activating other options.”
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He added, “We will be ready to face any Israeli attempt to change the rules of engagement. The Israeli internal [political] crisis may push the Israeli government toward a military escalation against Gaza, but the resistance is ready to face the worst.”
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Israeli military circles informed the Israeli Kan channel Jan. 15 that Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants were responsible for launching the rockets that day, although none of the Palestinian factions claimed responsibility. Yet, Israel bombed Hamas posts in response, because Israel believes that, as Hamas controls Gaza, it is responsible for any action there, regardless of which organizations carries it out.
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