For about a month, the Palestinian landscape has witnessed a round of limited escalation that drew the lines of new rules of engagement imposed by the Palestinian resistance on the Israeli occupation. The resistance has started firing burning balloons at the surrounding occupied lands in order to obtain rights such as the entry of medical supplies to face the COVID-19 virus, increase in the fishing area, breaking the siege, and implementation of several projects.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused the resistance’ demands, and responded to the burning balloons with firing rockets at the resistance’ sites and assets, without hurting Palestinian lives. Nevertheless, the resistance did not stop asking for its demands to be met, which led to the intervention of the Egyptian security delegation and, later, the Qatari Ambassador Mohammed Al-Emadi as mediators.

Insight of the Situation

The Palestinian resistance has been working on solving the crises the Gaza Strip has been suffering from for 14 years, since the siege was imposed. For a long time since, the resistance would initiate escalation rounds through firing rockets in order to obtain the Palestinian rights from the Israeli occupation. Recently, however, the resistance imposed a new rule of engagement that does not cost as much money as rockets do. In addition, burning the balloons would not lead to a new military round.

The Palestinian resistance would not have handled the situation as it did if the Coronavirus had not suddenly broken out in the Gaza Strip. The limited potentials of the health system, the curfew imposed in the Strip, and the continuous power cuts have all forced a change in the strategies.

On Monday, August 31^st, 2020, Hamas’ Bureau in the Gaza Strip declared the end of the escalation round as the occupation agreed to allow facilitations after the mediation of the Qatari Ambassador. The facilitations include:

• Allowing the entry of medical supplies to face the spread of the Coronavirus.
• Allowing the entry of fuel for the operation of the power plant, and feeding Line161 under Qatari sponsorship.
• Allowing the implementation of strategic projects for the construction of the Strip’s infrastructure.
• Allowing the implementation of operative projects to limit unemployment.
• Increasing the fishing area in the sea.

Netanyahu was forced to answer to the resistance’ demands because of the existing crises inside his government, the approach of the new school year, and the current political and diplomatic ‘advancement’ (i.e. normalization with the UAE). Becoming involved in a military escalation would have weakened his position, the one, he says, he has been sacrificing much to achieve for 25 years.

Possible Scenarios

1. The Israeli occupation adheres to the new agreement for a limited time in order to avoid engagement in the southern area and disturb the normalization work with Arab countries; and then hinder the agreements and return to a bigger round of escalation to obtain new demands.
2. The occupation does not adhere to the agreements, and relaunches a wider round of escalation with the resistance.

The first scenario is more likely to happen because the occupation’s interest in normalization with Arab countries is prioritized now, and the field will be headed to later.