The revolutionary youth continue to fire burning balloons at the Israeli occupation due to the latter’s prevention of the Qatari grant’s entry under the pretext of the spread of the Coronavirus. However, the political and military bodies in the Strip were not deceived. The Palestinian youth threatened to start peaceful protests at the Palestinian borders of the Gaza Strip. However, the Israeli occupation has not facilitated the entry of the grant nor the implementation of the economic projects, which, though to a limited extent, help improve the Strip’s economy.
The occupation’s government fired several rockets at the locations and assets of the Palestinian resistance, leading the Egyptian security delegation to move and work on restoring the calm between the Strip and the occupation’s entity. Hamas’ reception of the delegation was different from previous visits. The meeting was headed by Mahmoud Al-Zahhar, who is known for his strong and harsh speeches when addressing the mediators working between the resistance and the occupation. Al-Zahhar does not accept beautified political talks. Instead, he gives orders for the fulfilment of the demands or threatens of a heated military escalation.
Although the Israeli government and the Egyptian delegation understand and know the mentality of Al-Zahhar and the movement’s degree of preparedness, the occupation refused to meet the demands and continued to raid the locations and assets of the resistance.
Insight of the Situation
PM Benjamin Netanyahu could not achieve any economic, health nor military successes in the Coronavirus pandemic. Quite the opposite, he drowned his community with unemployment and debts; almost returning the entity to before 2008 (i.e. before he became Prime Minister and a strong Israeli economy was established). Still, he managed to strengthen the Arab-Israeli ties hence achieving a diplomatic step forward. The United Arab Emirates publicly declared its complete normalization with the occupation at the same time of the crisis Netanyahu was facing in the southern area with Hamas Movement.
As a result, Netanyahu did not want to miss the opportunity of having his political position polished within the Israeli community, so he did not answer to the conditions of the resistance and ordered the bombing of the military locations of Hamas in response to the burning balloons. The raids were not fired continuously, so I believe it is a part of a plan by the Israeli occupation: to respond with similar intensity to the damage caused by the balloons in order to prevent a heated military escalation from erupting. The field shows other possibilities since the resistance continues to threaten bombing the power plant of Ashkelon should the occupation continue to prevent the importation of fuel necessary for the powering of the plant in the Strip.
Expected Scenarios:
- The occupation continues to raid the locations and assets of the resistance, and refuses to answer to the demands of the resistance hence forcing the latter to target cities close to the Strip. This would result in ‘raids for raids’ tactics and the occupation would be forced to answer to the demands under fire.
- The occupation stops raiding the locations and reaches a common ground with the resistance, so the latter stops executing any field confrontations.
Based on the information provided above, the first scenario is most likely to happen.