Just a few hours after Israel made known through unofficial channels on Wednesday that it held the Islamic Jihad terrorist group responsible for shooting a barrage into Israel on Friday, another three mortar shells were fired from the coastal enclave into Israel.
The three shells all fell in open areas, thankfully. But one does not need to be an officer in an elite unit to understand that someone in Gaza is looking to escalate the situation and may even be looking for war.
The question is, who?
The Iranian connection
On Saturday, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman revealed that Iran was behind the near-daily rocket launches from Gaza last month, the largest incidence of missile fire from the Strip since the 2014 Hamas-Israel war.
This is a dramatic development.
After a long period in which Israel believed other terror groups were responsible for the increase in rocket fire, it turns out that Islamic Jihad also took part in the attempt to bring the sides to war — perhaps under instruction from Iran.
Islamic Jihad usually fires rockets or mortar shells at Israel after coordination with Hamas.
But now it appears likely that those responsible were members of Islamic Jihad who were not following orders and were firing at Israel without the knowledge of their organization’s leadership.
Hamas, for its part, continues to act to prevent rocket fire and other attacks against Israel. Late last week, the terror organization physically intervened to prevent attacks.
However, it is not clear whether this will be enough to prevent the powder keg of Gaza from exploding.
With so many factors leading to a wider escalation, along with incendiary actions by some groups, the security situation is growing worse. And although neither Israel nor Hamas wants war, it appears more and more likely.
Thousands of Palestinians protested Thursday evening against the deteriorating humanitarian and economic conditions in the Gaza Strip, local media reported, demanding that the Palestinian leadership provide them with solutions.
The demonstrators rallying in the Jabaliya refugee camp vented their anger against both the Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas and the Islamist Hamas terror group, which runs Gaza.
Video from the protest by the Quds New Network showed protesters shouting “We want unity,” in reference to the reconciliation process, which both Hamas and Fatah have said recently is in danger of failing.
“Where is the future,” “We want electricity,” proclaimed two signs held by two of the protesters, according to pictures of the event posted on social media.
“Our requests are justice, living freely and social justice,” read another sign held by protesters.
Others held banners with the slogan “open the crossings.” The Rafah Border Crossing out of the Strip and into Egypt has rarely been opened in recent years, and exiting through Israel for cases other than medical are complex, leaving many Gazans unable to leave the enclave.
The demands mirror those echoed in recent protests against economic conditions that have swept Iran in recent days. They also come at a time when the US has threatened to cut its aid to the Palestinians and the UN agency that deals with Palestinian refugees, many of them in Gaza
Gaza residents have experienced harsher economic and living conditions in recent months due to a series of sanctions placed on the enclave by Abbas.
The sanctions, which were aimed at forcing the Hamas terror group to cede control of the territory, included cutting electricity to anywhere between two to six hours daily, the slashing of tens of thousands of government worker salaries and thousands more workers being forced into early retirement.
The electricity cuts are a result of a dispute between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas.
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