Hebrew Media: Hamas Is Determined to Protect Jerusalem and Is Waiting for the Right Time

According to the Hebrew media, the Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip decided to gradually escalation against Israel, to pressure it to speed up the talks on the “reconstruction of the Strip,” and the completion of the “prisoner exchange deal.”

Sources in the Gaza Strip confirmed that the “Gaza-Jerusalem” equation is still valid, and the head of the Hamas movement in Gaza, “Yahya al-Sinwar,” is looking for the right time to implement it.

 

Gradual Escalation

The Hebrew security website “News One” indicated that after a short period of relative calm in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian organizations resumed operations against Israel at the end of Eid al-Adha.

Resistance groups launched “incendiary balloons” at the Gaza border settlements, which led to the burning of several fields in the occupied territories, “Israel” responded by reducing the fishing area in the Gaza Strip to 6 miles.

On July 25, Israeli Air Force planes attacked Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, this scenario was expected by the Israeli army.

The Lebanese newspaper “Al-Akhbar,” which is close to Hamas and Hezbollah, reported on July 26, that the Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip decided to focus pressure against “Israel” along the border in the coming days, to expedite the discussions taking place in Cairo on all economic and humanitarian issues related to the Strip.

According to the report, the Hebrew website stressed that the escalation against “Israel” would be gradual, it will start launching “incendiary balloons” at the settlements near the Gaza Strip, then it moves to processions along the border in the form of “return marches,” that started in 2017 and lasted about a year and a half.

The factions fear that the firing of rockets from the Gaza Strip into the occupied territories now will lead to a “big escalation,” it appears that it prefers a low-intensity activity, according to “Israeli” estimates.

“Israel” continues to close the crossings with the Gaza Strip, and prevents the import of raw and construction materials, “Israeli” policy states that the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip is conditional on progress in the return of the four prisoners held by Hamas.

According to sources in Hamas, the engineering teams of the Egyptian army continue to remove the rubble of the May 2021 war, the removal will take about a month, but the date when construction of the destroyed homes will begin is still unclear.

The Hebrew website pointed out that sources in Hamas said: “Everyone in Israel who thinks that Operation Saif al-Quds has ended is mistaken.”

In general, they say in Hamas: They are in the “warrior's rest” stage, and the campaign that began in response to the violations in Jerusalem is still continuing.

“News One” says: “In this context, we saw the launch of two missiles from southern Lebanon, in response to the ascension of the Jews to the Temple Mount on August 9, 2021, Hamas does not officially recognize that it initiated the shooting.”

But in the Palestinian territories, the Palestinians consider this a “fait accompli,” and Hamas is the one who coordinated this, the explanation given for this is that Yahya al-Sinwar did not want to spoil Eid al-Adha for the residents of the Gaza Strip, who were bombed on Eid al-Fitr.

Therefore, rockets were fired from southern Lebanon, not from the Gaza Strip, for Yahya al-Sinwar, this was one of his achievements in the last war, it can also open several fronts against “Israel” at the same time, according to the website.

 

Upcoming Confrontation

Hamas is strongly encouraged by what happened inside the occupied territories during the recent confrontation, where it succeeded in igniting confrontations there between Arabs and Jews.

Hamas sees that peace on the territory is now fragile, but any incident related to a violation of the status quo on the Temple Mount or East Jerusalem could “reignite the area” anew.

Al-Sinwar seeks to provide an opportunity to put the “Palestinian issue” back on the international agenda, Palestinians are encouraged by the US ice cream company Ben & Jerry's boycott of settlements.

The Palestinians also feel that a “great achievement” has been achieved, because of developments in the “US public opinion” in their favor.

Therefore, Hamas is looking for the “right opportunity” to attack, if Israel made a “big mistake” against the Palestinians in East Jerusalem.

In turn, the Hebrew newspaper “Maariv” indicated that nearly two months have passed since the end of Operation “Wall Guard” in the Gaza Strip.

It says: “Gaza is a complex problem, and at least at this stage the last operation seems to be just a small interlude, where the army is still holding meetings to draw lessons, getting ready for the upcoming campaign is already imminent.”

It believes that “after the last operation, the army became demanding new plans, the Southern Command is expected to announce its readiness for Level A (it has not been determined), and it's actually much more intense than the previous process.”

Among the many considerations, “the leadership in Israel preferred removing the main occupation of the Gaza Strip (remaining in the settlements from which it withdrew in 2005) from its agenda, but as always the possibility of escalation in the Strip is the most important for the Defensive Foundation.”

The newspaper believes that “the focus should also be on Iran, its nuclear program and the weapons it sends across the Middle East.”