Expect an escalation of new violence between Hamas, other terrorist groups, and Israel in the coming days.
The spark that has lit the fuse is Hamas’ continuing harassment of Israeli settlements just outside Gaza. Hamas is employing the ingenious but indiscriminate tactic of launching incendiary kites into Israeli forests and fields. It’s ingenious because the international media views the kite attacks as harmless (even though they damage Israeli property and risk lives). But on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded by closing a key border crossing that facilitates Palestinian trade with Israel and Egypt, and by limiting how far off-shore Gazans are allowed to fish.
These actions are designed to push Palestinians into pressuring Hamas to end its kite attacks.
Located on the southern tip of the Gaza Strip, the Kerem Shalom crossing is a lifeline for Palestinian receipts of medicines, foods, and industrial materials. The crossing is especially important in that it the Gaza Strip’s only other trade border crossing at Rafah is also closed. Without that trade access and Kerem Shalom, Palestinians will now be reliant on Hamas-controlled smuggling tunnels with Egypt. As a consequence, Gaza’s already weak economy will creak to a halt. And while Israel says humanitarian supplies through Kerem Shalom will be excluded, the blockade will increase suffering.
That speaks to Netanyahu’s objective of increasing Palestinian pain so as to pressure Hamas to end the kite attacks. The Israeli government is furious that Hamas has squandered peaceful compromises that were offered in recent talks and believes that the blockade is the only alternative recourse other than military strikes.
Yet violence may follow regardless.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad is already threatening violence and Hamas’ prior conduct suggests it will follow suit in order to avoid Islamic Jihad being usurped in favor with the Qatari money-men. But the simple truth is that all sides here have little reason to de-escalate. The Trump administration’s soon-to-be-released Israeli-Palestinian peace proposal is dead on arrival and more hawkish elements Israeli and Hamas politicians hold the initiative.
Still, ultimate responsibility for Gaza’s suffering rests with its rulers in Hamas. Wasting resources on military capabilities and failing to reform Gaza’s bloated, corrupt and utterly inefficient government bureaucracy, Gaza lacks the infrastructure and opportunities necessary to give its residents better lives. Until the group abandons its hopeless narrative of “liberating” Israeli territory for Palestinians, the exigent malady can’t be addressed, and Palestinians will continue to suffer.
