The truce is broken
1. How did it start?
Nearly three months ago, Khader Adnan – a Palestinian prisoner in Israel and the leader of a Palestinian armed group known as the Islamic Jihad – began a hunger strike to protest his detention. Adnan, 45, passed away last week.
Almost immediately, his death sparked violence. That afternoon, Islamic Jihad launched more than 100 projectiles toward the south of Israel. In response, Israeli officials began planning a counterattack.
A week later, Israeli rockets hit three apartments in the Gaza Strip within seconds early Tuesday morning, killing three Islamic Jihad commanders while most Gazans were asleep. According to Palestinian officials, the attack also killed 10 civilians, including some of the targets’ wives and children.
Islamic Jihad retaliated a day later, firing hundreds of rockets and shells at Israel. Some of the missiles reached the outskirts of Tel Aviv, although Israeli air defenses intercepted many of the missiles and avoided casualties.
Yesterday, Israeli forces kill two more people of the group’s commanders and continued to bombard Islamic Jihad weapons sites. Islamic Jihad fired rockets, one of which hit an apartment building in central Israel, killing a resident – the first Israeli casualty in the fighting. This morning, cross-border fighting resumed, with Islamic Jihad firing missiles towards the hills around Jerusalem.
According to Palestinian health officials, at least 31 Palestinians have been killed in the fighting, six of them children. Israel says rockets fired by Islamic Jihad caused four of the deaths.
2. What is Islamic Jihad?
Palestinian Islamic Jihad, founded in 1981, is a hardline organization that is more focused on the armed struggle against Israel and less involved with the Palestinian people. It denies Israel’s right to exist, as well as its main supporter, Iran. The group’s goal is to establish an Islamic state over the entire territory of historic Palestine, including modern Israel.
Hamas, the larger and more prominent Islamist militant group that controls the Palestinian coastal enclave of Gaza, did not participate in the rocket launch, although it has voiced support for jihad.
Hamas sometimes acts in concert with Islamic Jihad and sometimes acts to contain it. The political wing of Hamas is responsible for the more than two million mostly poor residents of Gaza, so it has very different interests. Operating under blockades imposed by Israel and Egypt for security reasons, Hamas’ priorities include keeping the border crossings between Israel and Gaza open for Palestinian workers and goods to pass through.
3. How can it end?
Most likely during another shaky ceasefire, such as the first one broken after Adnan’s death and again by the deadly Israeli pre-dawn attacks on Tuesday.
The Islamic Jihad’s stated conditions for a new ceasefire include Israel’s release of Adnan’s body for burial; prevent assassinations by the Israeli army; and canceled the annual provocative military parade this month marking Israel’s capture of East Jerusalem in the 1967 war.
Even if tranquility has been restored, the underlying hostility will remain. Not much will change on either side. The ceasefire will remain in place until the next round.
4. What is Mr. Netanyahu’s role?
In November, Israelis elected the most religiously conservative and right-wing government in the country’s 75-year history. Its supporters expect it to take more aggressive action against threats from Gaza. The extremist national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, even boycotted the government’s votes to protest what he saw as a weak response to the firing of a heavy missile at last week.
It is difficult to gauge the impact of public opinion on government actions. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a conservative with years of experience as Israel’s longest serving prime minister, has long been known as a risk averse and unenthusiastic about military adventures.
Israel’s political and military leaders say they decided to attack the leader of Islamic Jihad after determining they needed to stop the group when it began firing more than 100 rockets in a day.
Such Israeli military operations are not unprecedented. The former centrist government carried out rocket attacks in Gaza in August, killing two senior Islamic Jihad commanders and more than 40 other Palestinians, including at least 15 children. em.
With regard to jihad, it probably makes little difference who sits in the Israeli government.
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