by Israel Hayom Staff
Outcome suggests Hamas was dragged into fighting by Islamic Jihad, fearing it would be cast as collaborating with Israel.
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One of the targets
hit by Israeli aircraft in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday
Photo: AFP
Hours
after the latest Gaza flare-up drew to a close Wednesday, defense
officials were upbeat, saying Israel should be satisfied with the
results. The officials said that Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza
Strip since 2007, was taken off guard by the intense nature of the
fighting.
Islamic Jihad fired a
barrage of some 30 mortars toward Israel on Tuesday morning, which
triggered the most aggressive escalation since the 2014 Gaza war.
According to defense officials, Hamas signed off on the barrage ahead of
time so as to let the Islamic Jihad exact revenge for an incident
earlier in the week, in which Israel killed three of its members when
they tried to plant an explosive device near the Gaza border fence.
However, despite the
initial green light, Hamas was taken aback by the large number of mortar
bombs fired toward Israel and was also surprised by the Israeli
retaliation, which included some 30 daytime sorties targeting Hamas and
Islamic Jihad targets.
Officials believe that
Islamic Jihad dragged Hamas into a military confrontation it did not
actually want. As a result, Hamas fired rockets toward the Israeli
communities near the Gaza Strip – a step it has not taken since the
conclusion of the 2014 war, not even in cases where Israel successfully
destroyed cross-border Hamas tunnels (10 in total) or when more than 100
Palestinians storming the Gaza fence were killed over the course of
several weeks in weekly border protests.
This unusual decision to fire at Israel may have been taken in order to shed the notion that Hamas is collaborating with Israel.
Hamas initially asked for a
cease-fire at 9 p.m. on Tuesday and a request was made through Egyptian
intelligence officials. It also leaked the request to Arab media. Hamas
went on to declare a cease-fire, but toward midnight Tuesday, an
Israeli official said no such agreement had been reached. This was
followed by an Israeli Air Force attack on the Gaza Strip overnight .
The targets included storage facilities for SA-7 anti-aircraft shoulder
missiles, a facility for suicide drones, and a site used by Hamas naval
forces that held sophisticated amphibious devices.
At 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday,
Hamas and Islamic Jihad decided to unilaterally stop firing toward
Israel. To enforce this decision, Hamas deployed its people in various
launching positions to prevent further attacks. For the next few hours
this effort was largely successful, but at 5:20 a.m., the rogue factions
known as the Popular Resistance Committees and Global Jihad fired the
last salvo.
Israeli officials believe
that Hamas initially felt less deterred when it came to firing rockets
and mortars, but ultimately realized that it had made a mistake and
begged for a cease-fire.
"There is no cease-fire
agreement with Hamas or Islamic Jihad," one Israeli official said,
however. "Israel is not bound by anything; if a new tunnel is
discovered, it will be destroyed and if terrorists approach the fence
they will be killed."
Israel Hayom Staff
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/2018/05/31/hamas-caught-off-guard-by-intensity-of-clash-with-israel-officials-say/
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