Source:
https://scmp.com/news/world/middle-east/article/2128085/flare-israel-tests-hamas-effort-keep-gaza-low-boil
World/ Middle East

Flare-up with Israel tests Hamas effort to keep Gaza on low boil

A Palestinian protester swings his catapult at Israeli troops during clashes near the border in eastern Gaza City, on January 12, 2018. Photo: EPA-EFE

The worst fighting on the Gaza Strip front since 2014 is being calibrated by Hamas, which wants to signal defiance of Israel and the United States while being careful not to trigger a new war for the enclave’s penned-in Palestinians.

Since President Donald Trump reversed decades of US policy on December 6 by recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, Palestinians in Gaza have launched 18 cross-border rockets or mortars – a third of all such attacks in three-and-a-half years of relative quiet.

For Israel’s part, though residents in the south have raised a clamour for harsh retaliation, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has counselled caution and targeted mostly unstaffed Hamas facilities in nighttime air strikes.

The careful moves reflect the balancing act maintained both by Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza, and the Israeli government, old foes who share a reluctance to go to war again.

Palestinian protesters carry a wounded young man during clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinians near the border in eastern Gaza City, on January 12, 2018. More than 40 Palestinians protesters were injured during the clashes east of Gaza Strip. Photo: EPA-EFE
Palestinian protesters carry a wounded young man during clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinians near the border in eastern Gaza City, on January 12, 2018. More than 40 Palestinians protesters were injured during the clashes east of Gaza Strip. Photo: EPA-EFE

Gaza’s neighbourhoods still bear the scars of the destruction caused by Israeli attacks during a seven-week conflict in 2014. In Israel, there is little eagerness to endure the daily sirens warning of rocket strikes.

The situation in Gaza is very difficult and is not tolerable and is doomed to explode Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri

But ordinary Israelis and Palestinians are keenly aware that even a single incident – a rocket causing multiple fatalities in Israel or Israeli forces killing a militant leader – could set off a conflagration that would be beyond their leaders’ control.

Two Hamas gunmen have died in retaliatory Israeli air strikes and 15 protesters from Israeli gunfire.

“The recent weeks of rockets and Israeli bombardment proved an explosion is possible,” said Gaza political analyst Akram Attalla.

“How long will Hamas continue to take Israeli strikes to its positions without a response? And how long will Israel’s Netanyahu tolerate internal criticism? There is no guarantee.”

While there have been no Israeli fatalities or serious injuries in the rocket strikes, farmers in communities close to the Gazan border think twice about tilling fields where they might be exposed and children practise duck-and-cover drills should air raid sirens sound.

“Lately we do feel that there is more presence of the army. We have been told to be more careful, to clear the bomb shelter just in case. You never know when the next rocket will come,” said Hila Fenlon, resident of the farm collective Nativ Haasara.

Hamas has responded to Trump’s move by mobilising mass protests at the border and turning a blind eye to other factions firing into Israel in two weeks of daily attacks, which have tailed off recently.

“This saves face for Hamas, as it appears to be the one that stands behind these protests without the need to go to war,” said Attalla.

A Palestinian protester hurls a smoke-grenade towards Israeli security forces during clashes near the Hawara checkpoint, south of the West Bank city of Nablus, on January 12, 2018. Photo: AFP
A Palestinian protester hurls a smoke-grenade towards Israeli security forces during clashes near the Hawara checkpoint, south of the West Bank city of Nablus, on January 12, 2018. Photo: AFP

A more violent response was tamped down in debate among Palestinian factions who agreed that an armed confrontation could erode the international support Palestinians have won diplomatically and shift attention from the political process.

You never know when the next rocket will come Hila Fenlon, Israeli farmer

Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said no one should underestimate the potential for hostilities to resume under what he called an Israeli occupation, however.

Israel withdrew troops and settlers from the territory in 2005 but remains the conduit for the passage of goods and supplies most of its electricity.

Israel and Egypt, citing security concerns, maintain tight restrictions on the passage of Palestinians through their borders with the enclave.

“The situation in Gaza is very difficult and is not tolerable and is doomed to explode,” he said.

Israel sees an outside catalyst for the violence – Iran, which both Hamas and its sometime ally Islamic Jihad say has pledged unlimited help for them as the Syrian civil war, where Tehran deployed reinforcements for Damascus, winds down.

Israel has gone out its way to blame Islamic Jihad and other groups for the rocket and mortar attacks, rather than Hamas, and even gave grudging credit to Hamas for being mindful of Palestinian civilian needs.

A Palestinian protester fires a catapult at Israeli troops during clashes at Huwwara checkpoint near the West Bank City of Nablus, on January 12, 2018. Photo: EPA-EFE
A Palestinian protester fires a catapult at Israeli troops during clashes at Huwwara checkpoint near the West Bank City of Nablus, on January 12, 2018. Photo: EPA-EFE

“Calls to respond with full force against Hamas are irresponsible,” the top Israeli general, Gadi Eizenkot, said in a speech last week.

He noted Gaza’s “danger of humanitarian collapse”, which, he said, had forced Hamas to engage with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and secured a renewed power supply to the enclave.

Israeli concern about worsening Gaza’s internal problems has put it at odds even with the Trump administration.

Trump has threatened to cut US contributions to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) that provides essential aid for Palestinian refugees in the enclave, supporting and administering hundreds of schools and dozens of health facilities.

Israel says funds should be cut gradually and UNRWA should ultimately be dismantled and its responsibilities transferred to the United Nations’ global refugee agency.

Cutting aid to UNRWA would spell “huge pressures on Gaza’s residents,” said Saleh Naami, another Palestinian political analyst.

Peter Lerner, a former Israeli military spokesman, agreed.

“While UNRWA is far from perfect, the Israeli defence establishment, and the Israeli government as a whole, have over the years come to the understanding that all alternatives are worse for Israel,” he said.