The Gaza battle isn’t over yet

Ismail Haniyah, Head of Hamas politburo

Alesx Fishman,in YNET, writes, “The Gazan street was in a state of shock Tuesday, on Nakba Day of all days. The resistance movements—Hamas and the Islamic Jihad in Gaza, alongside Fatah in the West Bank—were supposed to demonstrate their full force on the street that day, but things didn’t go as planned. Several hundred Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, mainly in the Al-Bureij area, flocked to the fences and run wild as a force of habit. The result was one dead Palestinian and 50 wounded. Considering the weekend protests of the past two months, it was almost a regular day. In the West Bank, some 1,000 protestors gathered in 18 sites. Despite the forecasts, it ended up being the calmest Nakba Day Israel could have wished for.”

“There isn’t a single PR genius capable of explaining to normative people in the world a death toll of 61 and 2,850 wounded Palestinians in one day of protests. Israel will pay for Monday’s events. In the short run, these numbers created a shock in Gaza. Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar may have encouraged young Gazans to smash into the fences, but as the bodies piled up and the hospitals collapsed—it made the leadership stop and think. The social media discourse reveals a dispute: Part of the Hamas leadership is demanding revenge and wants to keep pushing the street to the fences so as not to lose the momentum; another part wishes to examine the political-economic achievements Hamas might be able to score from Monday’s victims. It’s quite possible that the clashes will resume. On Tuesday evening, reports began arriving about buses ordered to drive the masses to the fences. The IDF remains on high alert.”…

“In the internal discourse between Gaza’s different political streams—Fatah, the Popular Front, Hamas—activists are also talking about their shock, about needing time to recover, about recalculating their route. Most importantly, they are talking angrily and contemptibly about the PA, which they see as an Israel collaborator. They are referring to the West Bank residents as treacherous. Abbas did declare three days of mourning, but it’s business as usual on the West Bank streets.” (more…)