Breakthrough tunnel technology blunts Hamas’s strategic weapon.
T wenty-five rockets in nine days — that’s the tally of the recent missile fire from Gaza. But despite appearances Israel’s defense establishment says that Hamas isn’t interested in a fight. What’s more likely is that following President Trump’s December 6 Jerusalem declaration the Hamas leadership gave the extremist Salafi organizations and perhaps Islamic Jihad free rein to fire missiles. Since then Hamas has been having a hard time coaxing the genie back into the bottle. Hamas’s defense forces have arrested Salafi activists involved in the fire but it will take time it seems for them to reestablish calm.
Israel’s relationship with Hamas has entered a new strategic calculus. The terror group is balancing a number of competing demands all of which may determine the shape of any future conflict.
Rocket fire is only one part of the equation. Just last week the Shin Bet broke up a Hamas terror cell in the Shechem area that was planning to kidnap a soldier or settler during Chanukah. Hamas places the utmost importance on kidnappings seeing them as the only way to free thousands of Palestinians from Israeli prisons.
The planned terror attack brings to mind unpleasant memories from the summer of 2014 when a Hamas cell from Hebron kidnapped and murdered three Israeli teens Hy”d an episode that eventually led to Operation Protective Edge.
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