The Israeli army is stepping up strikes on the Gaza Strip and preparing for a week-long operation. And the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement continues to fire. This violence is the worst since the blitzkrieg of May 2021, in which Hamas was involved. Today, the movement that rules the Gaza Strip has not reacted. How long can he hold back? This is one of the key questions for the sequence of events.
Hamas is in retreat for the moment. Israel is doing everything to prevent it from entering the conflict, otherwise this “operation” will turn into a real war, reports our correspondent in Ramallah, Alice Froussard.
According to Israeli media, the Jewish state would have sent the message via Egypt – a historic intermediary between Israel and Gaza – that only Islamic Jihad was targeted.
Hamas nevertheless asked the Egyptians to put pressure on Israel to stop the bombardments. Whether Egypt’s mediation efforts will be successful remains to be seen.
► To read also: Deadly escalation between Israel and Gaza, high tension in Jerusalem
A contradictory situation
” Hamas is both a party of government because it governs the Gaza Strip, and it is a party of resistance against Israel, and it must reconcile the two, vis-à-vis their own militants “, analyzes Alain Gresh, director of the online newspaper East XXI.
Hence the question: how long can Hamas allow Israel to bomb without reacting? ” When there were the incidents in Jerusalem in May 2021, no one expected Hamas to enter the fray. Hamas is in charge of the management of two million people who live in appalling conditions. So there are economic problems, there is the fact that Gaza is under blockade, asphyxiated by the Israelis but also on the Egyptian side and therefore Hamas tries to have a certain number of possibilities to obtain economic advantages, to obtain that the goods simply can come in and go out. All this leads Hamas to think before launching an operation. »
And Alain Gresh to conclude: “ If Hamas joins the Jihad today, it will lead to a number of deaths equivalent to that which we have already experienced several times in previous years. »
The Islamist movement in power in Gaza warned this weekend against the “ forays “Israeli attacks that could lead to a situation” uncontrollable “.