Israel denounced this Wednesday that after launching retaliatory air strikes in the Gaza Strip, incendiary balloons continued to arrive from the Palestinian enclave against its territory, the first major incidents since the May ceasefire.
The Israeli airstrikes are the first since the new government headed by former Defense Minister Naftali Bennett came to power last Sunday, ending more than 12 years of uninterrupted rule by Benjamin Netanyahu.
A spokesman for the fire service told AFP that the intervention teams were fighting on Wednesday night (local time) against “four sources of fire caused by balloons launched from the Gaza Strip” for the second day in a row.
On the other hand, Israeli soldiers killed a woman in the West Bank who, according to them, tried to ram several soldiers with her car.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health only confirmed this death near Ramallah, in the West Bank. Palestinian news agency Wafa identified her as Mai Kaled Yussef
Afana, 29, from Abu Dis, a Palestinian city near Jerusalem.
Her uncle, Hani Afana, told the French agency that the young woman “took that road by mistake and did not try to commit an attack as claimed by the occupier (Israel).”
The first attacks of the Bennett era
The Israeli army confirmed that its “warplanes” attacked Hamas sites used for “meetings” of that movement, in retaliation for the launching of incendiary balloons on Tuesday.
In Gaza, Israeli aviation had attacked at least one site east of the city of Khan Younis hours before these incidents, according to Palestinian sources.
About a thousand apartments, offices and shops were destroyed in May in the last war with Israel, the fourth since 2008.
Israel’s operation focused very precisely on military installations of the al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamist movement that has ruled Gaza de facto since 2007, without causing casualties, as confirmed by both the Israeli Army and Hamas security sources. .
“We are prepared for any scenario, including the resumption of hostilities if terrorist activities continue in the Gaza Strip,” the army said in a statement late Tuesday.
This new episode of tension represents a challenge for the new government led by the religious ultra-nationalist Naftali Bennett, who – with a more pragmatic and conciliatory speech – took office last Monday, although it does not seem that his position towards Hamas is very different from the one. of the former Executive Benjamin Netanyahu.
In fact, the defense minister is still Benny Gantz, leader of the center-right Blue and White party, who was a partner in the government of Netanyahu and who later joined the coalition of change due to disagreements with him.
Tuesday’s attack responds to the usual modus operandi of the Israeli Army in these cases, which blames Hamas for any aggression originating from inside Gaza, and when rockets or incendiary balloons are launched, it usually responds with selective attacks on movement facilities, without doing so. lead to further escalation.
Bennett’s government partner is the secular centrist Yair Lapid, architect of the Executive of the change and who will inherit his leadership in 2023, so any important decision must have the approval of both.
Lapid, who until then has assumed the Foreign Ministry, has been in favor of resuming the peace process with the Palestinians, although the valid interlocutor for these negotiations would always be the Palestinian National Authority, – historically controlled by Fatah and chaired by Mahmoud Abbas. , and not Hamas.
However, a poll released on Tuesday showed the growing popular support of the Palestinians for Hamas, to the detriment of Fatah, which rose to 53% after the military scald, which according to 77% of those interviewed ended with the triumph of the movement. Islamist vis-à-vis Israel.
Palestinian protests against an ultra-nationalist march
Palestinian activists and Hamas sympathizers demonstrated in several cities in the Strip on Tuesday and launched incendiary balloons towards the border with Israel, setting off a score of minor fires, in protest at the celebration of the “Parade of Flags”, a march Israeli ultranationalist in Jerusalem, which passed through the occupied eastern zone and in which cries of “Death to the Arab” were heard.
Although Hamas called for a Day of Wrath as a sign of repudiation of the march, the event passed without serious incident, although 33 Palestinians in Jerusalem were slightly injured when dispersed by the police to prevent a counter-protest parallel to the parade igniting violence. In addition, 17 Palestinians were arrested for throwing stones at the officers.
The protesters, including far-right figures such as Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, reached the square in front of the Damascus Gate, which accesses the city’s Muslim quarter, where the Esplanade of the Mosques is located.
“The eternal people are not afraid of a long road,” the protesters chanted as they waved the blue and white Israeli flags.
The United States and the UN had called for moderation in the face of the controversial march, authorized by the Bennett government.
Despite the celebration of the march – which changed the route so as not to pass through the Damascus Gate, the entrance to the Muslim quarter of the Old City – and the Israeli air attack, Hamas has not taken retaliatory actions, such as the launching of rockets. That it did start on May 10, coinciding with the convocation of that same parade, which led to an eleven-day military scald, the worst since the 2014 war.
The clashes ended on May 21 thanks to a “mutual, simultaneous and unconditional” truce, mediated mainly by Egypt – although Jordan, Qatar, the UN or the United States also played a role – after having caused 255 deaths in the Strip and 13 in Israel.
“The Zionist bombing of the Gaza Strip is a failed attempt to stop the solidarity and resistance of our people to protect the Holy City,” Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said today in a statement.
Independent analysts in Gaza told EFE that Hamas refrained from retaliating because it is in direct contact with Egyptian mediators seeking to shore up a long-term ceasefire, but also because the latest escalation considerably reduced its military capacity of the movement, focused now rebuilding the enclave, mired in ruins and rubble ever since.
Hamas would also have taken into consideration, according to these sources, that the Gazan population – some two million inhabitants – was very affected, is exhausted and needs to recover its routine, so it has chosen to maintain its commitment to Egypt to ensure that the arduous rehabilitation of the enclave run its course.
With information from AFP and EFE
