Gaza’s deferred date with aggression

In Gaza, the calm is like a cloud that could disappear in an instant. The situation is tense and the constant threats to end the siege or even for the current situation to “explode” are ongoing; there is real fear that the violence and aggression may escalate. On Thursday, the Israelis announced that they had discovered a tunnel in the south of the Gaza Strip. This is the second tunnel discovered by the army in the past two months.

Israel is racing against time to strip the Palestinian resistance of its most important weapons. It has invested more than 600 million shekels in some of the most sophisticated intelligence and technology to detect the location of tunnels constructed by the Palestinian resistance groups. It has tried to keep these secret while launching an intense media campaign and effort on the ground to find and destroy the Gaza tunnels. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the border area recently and encouraged settlers to do the same in an effort to showcase the government’s anti-tunnel efforts. Netanyahu also claimed that the army has waged a psychological war against the Palestinian resistance and has gone so far as to say that it has succeeded in this.

It is clear that Israel is making progress and the government has claimed that it expects to destroy all tunnels in the Gaza Strip within two years; any future confrontation with Hamas will see the Palestinian resistance group severely weakened because it will have lost its most important means of defence, which poses a great threat to Israel. Hamas is aware of this and it fears that more of its tunnels will be discovered, although it is confident that it is virtually impossible for Israel to discover all of the tunnels, wherever they might be.

The Israeli army enters Gaza frequently, but it is the first time in two years that the Palestinian resistance groups, mainly Hamas, have worked in a public and visible way to prevent such incursions.

Gaza’s date with another Israeli offensive has been deferred, although much of the rhetoric and action on the ground remains the same as that in Israel’s three previous attacks over the past eight years. The Palestinian resistance is not interested in a sudden escalation of violence and the destruction of homes, with the inevitable casualties it will bring. Nor is it interested in worsening the already dire humanitarian situation in Gaza or endangering the livelihood of people without anything in return, or any immediate political benefits such as lifting the siege.

Israel is putting a great deal of effort into finding and destroying the tunnels and will put off any offensive until it believes that the job is done. It is always prepared for aggression as long as it is on its own terms, and it will not be swayed by the appeal of a long-term truce. The government is not prepared to lift the siege on Gaza despite the disastrous implications that another offensive would have on Israel’s security. It will only work to improve the situation in Gaza in a way that benefits its interests.

Resistance is the right of the Palestinian people and Hamas says that it is not interested in an escalation of violence and that it is merely working to prevent Israel’s cross-border interference within Gaza. The Islamic Resistance Movement, however, also knows that the next Israeli offensive is imminent and it has been working to postpone it as long as possible because the Arabs and the Iranians are all currently preoccupied in matters that they believe are more important than Palestine. Nobody can deny that another offensive is coming, though.

Translated from Palsawa.com, 5 May, 2016

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