Hamas unfazed by Israel warnings
As Israel is making economic concessions in the Gaza Strip, sporadic rockets continue to be launched from the enclave, prompting Israel to threaten to end all concessions.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israel contacted the Egyptian intelligence Dec. 30, warning against Hamas firing rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel and vowing to go back on all the recent economic concessions it made to Gaza under the truce understandings reached by Egypt between the two parties, at the end of March 2019, an Egyptian parliamentarian close to the Egyptian intelligence services told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity.
The most recent rockets were fired Dec. 25. Israel responded by launching several raids on the Gaza Strip at dawn Dec. 26, targeting several positions of the Palestinian armed factions in the north, center and south of Gaza without reporting any casualties.
Yet Israel considers that any Palestinian rocket launching toward it, even if Hamas is not directly responsible, is a violation of the truce understandings and is enough to disrupt it.
On Dec. 30, Israel decided to import strawberries, tomatoes and eggplant from the Gaza Strip to support its local markets, for the first time since a ban imposed several years ago. It decided at the same time to introduce transportation buses and fishing boats to Gaza, in addition to rubber tires, which had been banned since April 2018.
