Can Hamas walk the fine line between deterrence and escalation?

Women flying Palestinian flags and kites, Great March of Return, Gaza Strip (Mohammed Asad)

Ben White writes in Al Jazeera, “More than a month has passed since the last significant exchange of fire between the Israeli military and Palestinian factions in the occupied Gaza Strip.

Thus, despite a number of significant and deadly flare-ups, the summer passed without a new large-scale Israeli assault on the blockaded territory materialising.

While Israeli military strategy has long relied on deterrence – the idea that short, sharp shocks to enemy forces and civilian population will secure periods of “quiet” – events this summer beg the question whether Hamas and other factions in Gaza have established their own deterrence.”…

“According to Gaza-based Hamas spokesperson Hazim Qasim, while ‘the Palestinian factions agreed that the Great Return March, which started on March 30, should be popular and peaceful”, Israel “harshly targeted the peaceful protesters’ and additionally struck ‘resistance sites and the fighters’.

He told Al Jazeera: ‘Hamas’ position was that the protests were peaceful and must remain peaceful, so Hamas decided not to let the occupation turn the protests [not] peaceful. Therefore, it decided that any military attack must have a military response’.” (More…)