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Comment and Opinion

Haaretz: What’s next for Gaza: rehabilitation or blowup?, by Amos Harel

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The firing of a few rockets from the Gaza Strip toward an Israeli border community on Friday does not reflect a basic change from the situation created at the end of the war in late August. For that reason, the Israeli response was limited: One strike against a Hamas training area in the southern Gaza Strip, and Israel’s reiteration that it regards Hamas as responsible for any attack on it from Gaza.

And yet, the exchanges of fire reflect a potential for escalation. Gaza, almost four months after the war, remains a pressure cooker at boiling point. Miscommunications between the sides, which, to a great extent, is what happened before hostilities broke out last summer, could spark a flare-up that might overshadow the Knesset election campaign.

The Israeli security establishment believes that a relatively small Palestinian faction was responsible for Friday’s rockets, and they say Hamas took steps to rein in rocket-launching militants immediately after the rockets fell. This is what Hamas did for many months before last summer’s conflict began.

From time to time, a single rocket was fired, after which urgent messages were conveyed to Israel that the incident was not acceptable to the Gaza leadership. But in the weeks that preceded the eruption of last July’s war, a gradual change could be seen in Hamas’ attitude. At first, “rogue” factions were doing the firing; then front organizations encouraged by Hamas; and, finally, activists of Hamas itself, before the major outbreak occurred – in the context of Israel action to thwart Palestinian preparations for a large-scale terror attack through a tunnel at Kerem Shalom.

Read the article in full at Haaretz.