What Was Different About the Latest Gaza Fighting?
When Israel attacked Palestinian Islamic Jihad targets in Gaza last weekend, Hamas did not join the fight. While this does not mean that Hamas has turned its back on armed struggle, it does suggest that the movement is seeking to strike a balance between its revolutionary ethos and its responsibility to Gaza’s population.
https://prosyn.org/CBWw75N
TEL AVIV – The Gaza Strip is among the most densely populated and impoverished parts of the Middle East. It is also one of the most beleaguered places on Earth, ruled by the Islamist Hamas, crushed by an Israeli (and Egyptian) blockade, and exhausted by clashes with Israel. So far, fighting between Gaza Strip militants and Israel has done nothing to deliver progress toward a political settlement that might release Gaza’s residents from what is effectively an open-air prison.