BICOM

Israeli aircrafts yesterday carried out large scale raids on facilities maintained by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The operation was carried out in response to the sudden and unexpected wave of mortar and rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip on Israeli communities living nearby. Over the weekend 50 mortar shells landed on areas surrounding Gaza and a Grad-type rocket hit Ashkelon. Yesterday, in response to the weekend’s escalation, five separate air raids were carried out by Israeli aircraft on Hamas facilities. Among the sites targeted was a training camp north of Gaza City, a security compound, a smuggling tunnel, a brickwork and metal foundry in the northern part of the Strip, according to a report in Haaretz. No fatalities were reported as a result of the strikes. However, according to the report, five people were reported wounded, including two children.

Israeli planners will be hoping that the air raids over the last 24 hours will prove sufficient to re-establish the situation of deterrence, which has largely maintained quiet between Israel and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip since the conclusion of Operation Cast Lead in 2009. Hamas, apparently in a bid to avoid further raids, stated its commitment to continuing the unofficial ceasefire. Yet even if this desire is sincere, the decision by Hamas to carry out and/or permit the rocket and mortar attacks seen over the weekend shows the inherent fragility and potential for rapid deterioration of relations between Israel and the Hamas Gaza enclave.

Hamas’s desire is to maintain exclusive control of Gaza. Its current strategy of upholding the ceasefire whilst, at the same time, reserving the option of engaging in controlled provocations, underlies its desire not to risk losing power by uncontrolled provocations against Israel. On this occasion Hamas’s use of violence appears to reflect the need to artificially engineer a crisis to divert attention from internal discontent with their rule, and efforts by the Palestinian Authority leadership toward reconciliation.