GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The Israeli army continued bombing Hamas targets this week in the Gaza Strip, which army spokesman Avichai Edrei said comes in response to rockets and incendiary balloons being launched from the Gaza Strip toward Israel.
Israel's retaliation for earlier volleys included authorities' decision Feb. 2 to keep cement from entering the Gaza Strip and reduce the number of Gaza merchants allowed to enter Israel. On Feb. 5, Israel decided to reduce the fishing zone in the Gaza Strip from 15 nautical miles to 10.
Hamas — which rules the Gaza Strip and concluded truce agreements in March 2019 with Israel under Egyptian sponsorship — said the current escalation stems from public anger at Israel's lack of commitment to the truce understandings, and expresses Palestinians' rejection of the US peace plan announced Jan. 28. Yet Hamas has refrained from making any statements about the escalation. Al-Monitor tried to contact Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem to ask about the movement’s silence, but to no avail.
Talal Okal, a political analyst and writer for the West Bank-based newspaper al-Ayyam, told Al-Monitor Israel is leading this escalation with the aim of forcing the Gaza Strip into a calm-in-exchange-for-calm equation. But, he wonders, if Palestinians halted their marches and aborted the violence in exchange for Israeli incentives, then what are they expected to do when Israel revokes the incentives?
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