Although the situation is not the same as in Gaza, violence is also rising in the West Bank, says researcher Antti Tarvainen who was in the area.
The conflict between Israel and Hamas is centered in Gaza, but the threat of protests and violence in the West Bank are also Antti Tarvainen including increased.
– Violence is rising there too, settlements are being armed and in general people are very afraid of what this will lead to, Tarvainen described the situation in an interview with aam.
Until last week, it was needed on the West Bank itself. According to him, the violence of Israeli settlements against Palestinians has increased, but the threat to Palestinian protests against settlements and Israeli soldiers is also increasing.
– There is also a huge risk of escalation on the West Bank, Tarvainen said.
However, Tarvainen reminded that it is still a completely different world and situation than where Gaza is, even though both areas are under Israeli occupation.
The United States and Israel negotiated humanitarian aid to Gaza
There are still some foreigners in Gaza and also Finns who are waiting at the closed Rafah border crossing to enter Egypt.
Aid transports from different parts of the world are also stuck at the border, and according to aid organizations, the situation in Gaza is catastrophic.
On Monday, the United States and Israel discussed humanitarian aid to Gaza, and according to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the two countries have agreed to make a plan to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza.
The goal would be that the grants would not benefit the terrorist organization Hamas.
Researcher of the Middle East and Islam at the University of Helsinki Joonas Maristo doubts the success of this goal.
– In my opinion, Hamas has quite a wide support in Gaza and anyway they have all the strings in their hands there, so I could imagine that these aid transports go through Hamas supporters in one way or another, Maristo estimates.
The violent attack by Hamas was a surprise
Hamas has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007, and conflicts between Israel and Hamas have been experienced before. This time’s attack by Hamas is, however, particularly powerful and bloody.
According to Maristo, why the attack was so powerful and why it happened right now are big questions to which hardly anyone knows the complete answer.
– It has been speculated that why on earth such a raw, brutal and bloody terrorist attack, which probably does not help the situation in the short term, i.e. does not promote the goals of Hamas, Maristo said.
Maristo reminds us that history has shown that whenever there is a Hamas attack on Israel from Gaza, Israel has always responded, and more Palestinians have usually died in conflicts.
According to Maristo, it is difficult to see a strategic background thought in the attack by Hamas, but he estimates that Hamas has calculated that a massive attack could cause a greater escalation in the region, which could then change the balance of power.
According to Maristo, at least there is no such situation yet.