Israel and a Palestinian armed group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), reached a ceasefire agreement after a three-day fight which killed 44 Palestinians, including 15 children, and injured a number of Israeli and Palestinian citizens. The ceasefire agreement ended a conflict which started on Friday when Israel preemptively bombarded PIJ outfits that posed a “direct threat” against the Israeli citizens.
Although Israeli officials declined to release the details of the ceasefire agreement, PIJ stated that Egypt mediated in the conflict, and two detained members of the armed group, Khalil Awawdeh, and Bassem Saadi, will be released by Israel under the agreement.
Before the truce, Israeli political analysts claimed that the latest military conflict is the victory of Israel as it will warn other regional opponents of the country, notably Hezbollah of Lebanon, to course-correct or face the consequences of the rivalry with the Jewish state.
While PIJ tried to launch an offensive against Israeli forces, they faced humiliation when the videos of their malfunctioned missiles hitting civilians within Gaza went viral.
Ibrahim Dalalsha, the director of a political research group, Horizon Center, stated that a truce is a victory for Israel since the ceasefire will completely isolate PIJ. According to Dalalsha, PIJ has only one thing to tell its followers: “we fired rockets,” while in reality, they have nothing to brag about. Hamas is also hesitant to support PIJ because they have too much to lose during an armed conflict, Dalalsha added.
Previous Israel-Palestine conflict drew heavy criticism from the neighboring countries, but this time, most of the countries preferred to remain silent during the fighting. Although the UAE and Morocco, which accepted Israel in 2020, expressed their concerns about the military violence, they did not condemn Israeli forces right away. Only Bahrain criticized the Israeli strikes.
Most political analysts claim that Israeli military strikes are neither in favor of Israel nor of Palestine. While Israel successfully managed to kill PIJ leaders and eliminate the looming threats of violence, the major threat to Israel is still Hamas, which is reluctant to accept Israeli sovereignty and dismantle its militia groups.
A former minister of Israel, Tzipi Livni, also acknowledged that Hamas would remain the real threat to Israel in the long run. Livni noted that even if Israel has stopped the “ticking bomb” of violence, it will still not bring any strategic change in Gaza. In these testing times, the stakeholders keep on fighting one round of war after the other as they are confused about their objectives in the war, Livni added.
But some strategic experts believe that Israel’s attempt to give employment to Gazans has encouraged Hamas to stop their aggressive attacks against the Jewish state. Gaza has a total population of two million people, with an unemployment rate of more than 50 %. Only 10 % of the Gaza population has access to clean drinking water, as per UNICEF. However, since the last war, Israel has given work permits to 14,000 Gaza residents, so Hamas does not want to continue its aggressive behavior against Israel anymore.
Ahmed Khan
Political Reporter
