Israel sends threatening message via Egypt

The Egyptian authorities passed a threatening message from Israel to Hamas and Islamic Jihad earlier this week. The Israelis said that unless the firing of missiles from Gaza is stopped then the Gaza Strip will be hit fiercely.

A senior Palestinian official disclosed to Alhayat that an Egyptian intelligence official called Hamas’s Musa Abu Marzooq and Islamic Jihad deputy secretary general Ziyad Al-Nakhalah. He told them that Israel would hit Gaza fiercely if the two movements failed to abide by the truce terms.

With regards to Egypt’s efforts to stop the current escalation in Gaza, the Palestinian official said that the Egyptians expressed their desire to avoid any escalation. “They warned us that things would escalate on the Israeli side if we did not control the field,” he said, “but this was the first time that we sensed that they did not want to intervene.” The Egyptians, he continued, only conveyed a message from the Israelis. “It was as if that is all they are concerned with, conveying the message. Perhaps this is because they wish to weaken Hamas even if the means of achieving that is a painful Israeli blow against Gaza.”

The reply given to the Israeli message was that neither Hamas nor Islamic Jihad are interested in escalating the situation. “There are, however, numerous other resistance forces in the field and controlling the situation will require wisdom and time,” said the anonymous official. “At the same time there should be a specific form of truce that would protect people. So, the Israelis will have do something too, namely ending its offensive.” However, he pointed out that if the Israelis go ahead with the escalation “there will be a response from our side.”

Although “all options are open”, but if Israel continues to bomb Gaza “Israel will pay a price just as we pay a price”. That, he warned, will take matters into the unknown, with missiles reaching “Tel Aviv and beyond.”

In conclusion, the official pointed out that Israel has been pressing hard to kill the national unity government even before it came to life. “It would seem that it has succeeded.”

Report by Jeehan Al-Husseini. Translated from Al Hayat newspaper, 8 July, 2014