What is Hamas trying to achieve by provoking Israel? – analysis

Hamas officials attributed Israel’s alleged failure to fully abide by the terms of the understandings to the relative calm that prevailed along its border with the Gaza Strip in recent months.

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
A FIRE caused by a balloon launched from Gaza. (photo credit: REUTERS)
A FIRE caused by a balloon launched from Gaza.
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Concerned about the world’s preoccupation with the coronavirus pandemic and Arab countries’ apathy toward the Palestinians, Hamas is again seeking to spotlight the Gaza Strip by initiating a series of provocations against Israel.
Hamas is worried that the growing economic crisis in the Gaza Strip will trigger another wave of protests, similar to those that erupted in various parts of the Gaza Strip last year.
Hamas is fearful that the unrest will undermine, or even end, its rule over the Gaza Strip.
But Hamas also knows that an all-out military confrontation with Israel could bring an end to its rule as well.
That is why Hamas is now trying to find a way to force the Israeli government to comply with its demand to ease restrictions on Gaza without jeopardizing its own rule.
As part of its effort to draw the world’s attention to the Gaza Strip, Hamas decided two weeks ago to resume the incendiary and explosives-laden balloon attacks on Israel.
The decision came after Hamas realized that the international community, including Egypt and Qatar, which were separately involved in brokering previous ceasefire understandings with Israel, had lost interest in the Gaza Strip.
Since the last ceasefire understandings, reached under the auspices of Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations earlier this year, Hamas has been accusing Israel of “foot-dragging” with regards to its promise to ease restrictions imposed on Gaza.
Hamas officials attributed Israel’s alleged failure to fully abide by the terms of the understandings to the relative calm that prevailed along its border with the Strip in recent months.
According to the Hamas officials, Israel slowed down the pace of implementation of the understandings in the belief that Hamas was not interested in another round of fighting.
Now, Hamas wants Egypt, Qatar and the UN to exert pressure on Israel to comply with its demands for easing the restrictions.
Last week, Hamas leaders told Egyptian intelligence officers who visited the Gaza Strip they expected Cairo to pressure the Israeli government to wholly fulfill the terms of the ceasefire understandings.
The Egyptians, who promised to relay Hamas’s demands to Israel, have still not come back with an Israeli response.
Senior Hamas official Salah al-Bardawil on Sunday said his movement was still waiting for the return of the Egyptian delegation and Israel’s response.
Hamas’s list of demands includes solving the electricity crisis in the Gaza Strip, allowing the entry of tens of thousands of workers and merchants into Israel, permitting free import and export of goods to and from the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave, implementing economic and relief projects and expanding the fishing zone, Bardawil said.
Experience shows that Israel takes action only when there is a security escalation along the Gaza border, another Hamas official said.
“Israel could have avoided the recent tensions by implementing the ceasefire understandings,” the official said. “The Israeli government remembers the Gaza Strip only when [incendiary] balloons or rockets are launched [towards Israel].”
Hamas’s decision to escalate tensions with Israel is also directed toward Qatar, which has been providing financial aid to tens of thousands of Palestinian families in the Gaza Strip over the past few years. Qatar’s latest cash grant to the Gaza Strip will end in September, and Hamas is worried that the Qataris may not resume the payments.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who moved to Doha earlier this year, has in recent weeks been trying to persuade the Qataris not only to continue the cash grant payments, but to raise the sum from $20 million to $40m.
Although some reports have suggested that Qatar intends to extend the payments for an additional six months, Hamas is still waiting for official confirmation from Doha.
Qatari envoy Mohammed al-Emadi, head of the Qatari Committee for the Reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, is scheduled to arrive in the Gaza Strip in the coming days for talks with leaders of Hamas and other Palestinian factions about ways of averting a major military confrontation with Israel.
The Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip are hoping that Emadi will bring with him a promise to continue the cash payments for at least another six months. Such a pledge will ensure calm, at least until the end of the year, and allow Hamas to maintain its tight grip on the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, the factions have made it clear they are prepared for another round of fighting with Israel if the current Egyptian-Qatari-UN mediation efforts fail.
Many Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, however, expressed doubt that Hamas wants another war with Israel. Hamas, they said, just wants to remind everyone that the problems of the Gaza Strip have still not been resolved and that it will not allow anyone to undermine its control.