More than 200 Israelis from communities along the Gaza border converged on Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square Saturday evening. Protesters called on the government to act to ensure their security after months marred by rocket fire that has had them scrambling toward shelters on a regular basis, as well as incendiary kites and balloons that have torched thousands of acres of land.
Demonstrators held signs reading, “We are not cannon fodder,” “We are not human shields,” and “Wake up, government — the entire south is burning.”
They released balloons, to highlight the arson kite and balloon attacks from Gaza that have burned 7,000 acres of southern Israeli land in recent weeks, and lay on the ground to mimic procedures when rocket attacks find them too far from shelters.
After convening at Rabin Square, the demonstrators marched north up Ibn Gabirol St. under police escort. A similar protest was held last week in front of IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv, also bringing hundreds to the coastal city.
Saturday’s rally came amidst the backdrop of reportedly intensifying negotiations for a long-term ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
A day prior, a senior Hamas official said that negotiations for a long-term ceasefire deal were in “the final stretch.”
Lebanon’s Al-Mayadeen TV quoted Kahlil al-Hayya as saying the deal would follow understandings reached at the end of the 2014 war between the sides. He did not elaborate.
While no rockets have been launched at Israel in over a week as talks have progressed, residents of the coastal enclave have continued to release incendiary balloons toward bordering Israeli towns on a near daily basis.
However, prior to the relative period of quiet, Israel and Hamas engaged in some of the heaviest exchanges of fire since 2014’s Operation Protective Edge. During a two-day flare-up earlier this month, Hamas fired over 150 rockets and mortars into southern Israel, which responded with about the same number of air strikes on Hamas targets in Gaza.
Southern Israel has experienced hundreds of fires as a result of incendiary kites and balloons flown over the border from Gaza in recent months. Over 7,000 acres of land have been burned, causing millions of shekels in damage, according to Israeli officials.
Commenting on the ceasefire reports, Kibbutz Kfar Aza resident and protest organizer Alona Braun dismissed the Israeli effort.
“There isn’t any security,” she told Hadashot news. “Yesterday, six kites or balloons set fire to fields in our area. We demand lasting security, and as long as it is not guaranteed to us, we will continue to protest.”
Despite the deteriorating security situation in recent months, Braun told Hadashot that she has no intention to leave her community.
“This is my home, the Negev is an amazing area,” she said.
Several thousand Palestinians gathered near the Gaza border Friday for the weekly “March of Return” protests. The Hamas-run health ministry reported that two people were killed and 270 injured in clashes with Israeli troops, 60 of them by live fire. Hamas’s Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar, who has not been seen in public for some time, visited one of the protest tents to encourage demonstrators.
In other words, Friday was ostensibly business as usual in Gaza.
But sources in the Strip have said that despite appearances, Hamas is not interested in hurting the prospects of an Egyptian-brokered long-term ceasefire agreement that is under negotiation. In fact, they note, Friday’s protests, though violent, had fewer participants than in previous weeks, and were generally more subdued.
Still, even though both sides appear to want calm, there is a difference in understanding regarding the scope of the potential truce.
Hamas does not view the ongoing “popular protests” along the border, or the kite and balloon arson attacks that have burned over 7,000 acres of southern Israeli land, as a violation of any such agreement. As far as Hamas is concerned, those attacks are part of the popular Palestinian struggle against Israel. If Hamas does reach a long-term ceasefire deal with Israel, the terror group insists it will be obligated to cease rocket and mortar fire, but nothing more.
This perception may be at odds with the discourse in Israel, where many expect a ceasefire deal with the terror group to include a cessation of the months-long border clashes and arson attacks.
Conversely, Hamas says it will not agree to such a truce unless Israel stops bombings its facilities in the Gaza Strip, which have caused considerable damage to its infrastructure in recent weeks. (It may also be more difficult for Hamas to repair this damage due to the financial crises currently being experienced by Iran and Turkey — countries which have helped in the financial department in the past.)
Israel has carried out such strikes in response to arson attacks and particularly egregious violence at the protests, and is unlikely to accept an arrangement in which it would agree to halt such responses while Gazans remain free to riot and burn Israeli farmland.
The bottom line is that, contrary to the portrayal by some media outlets, any potential arrangement with Hamas is not likely to be dramatic or all that significant. Yes, it would provide for a ceasefire, but one along the lines of the deal that ended the 2014 war in Gaza. It’s far too early to start talking about something more significant, something, for example, that might provide for constructing a seaport for Gazans in Cyprus, or a complete lifting of border restrictions.
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