Global Courant 2023-05-14 23:02:26
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — A fragile ceasefire between Israeli troops and militants in the Gaza Strip appeared to hold on Sunday after a five-day conflict that left 33 Palestinians and two people in Israel dead.
In an early test for the ceasefire, Palestinian militants fired a rocket on Sunday night that landed in an open area in southern Israel. Palestinian media said the launch was caused by a technical error when militants tried to deactivate the missile.
Israel responded with tank fire at what it said were two military posts belonging to the ruling Hamas militant group in Gaza. Hamas stayed out of the recent round of fighting, but Israel says it holds the group responsible for fire emanating from the area.
The latest round of fighting in Gaza began Tuesday when Israeli fighter jets killed three top commanders of the Islamic Jihad militant group in response to earlier rocket launches from Gaza. Those killings sparked a barrage of militant fire, and the conflagration threatened to drag the region into another all-out war until Egypt brokered a ceasefire that took effect late Saturday.
While the calm seemed to bring a sense of relief to Gaza’s 2 million residents and the hundreds of thousands of Israelis largely trapped in bomb shelters in recent days, the agreement did nothing to address the underlying issues that have led to numerous fighting between Israel and Palestinians. militant groups in the Gaza Strip over the years.
In Gaza, residents surveyed the latest damage to their surroundings, with gaping holes in the apartments serving as what Israel says were hiding places for the six senior members of Islamic Jihad killed in this round. Gaza’s main cargo crossing with Israel reopened on Sunday after warnings that keeping it closed would force Gaza’s only power station to close, exacerbating a power crisis.
Israel gradually lifted restrictions on residents of southern Israel, who had been hardest hit by the rocket fire.
Israeli officials expressed satisfaction at the latest battle, which saw at least six top Islamic Jihad members killed in what they said were targeted attacks based on solid intelligence. But at least 13 of those killed in Gaza were civilians, including children as young as 4 years old, as well as women.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the targeted attacks on the militants’ hideouts would reverberate across the region.
“Israel’s enemies in Gaza and far beyond Gaza know that even if they try to hide, we are able and willing to reach them at any time,” he told a meeting of his cabinet.
Israel has in the past faced criticism from rights groups over the civilian casualties in its bombings in Gaza. Israel says it is doing its utmost to avoid harming civilians in its attacks and says militants are operating from the area’s densely populated areas to fire rockets indiscriminately at Israeli communities.
While some attacks were accurate, others destroyed the homes of uninvolved Palestinians.
“If they want to attack a house, let them attack it alone. Why destroy the entire neighborhood? Why?” said Mai Sarson, whose house in Deir el-Balah was reduced to ruins during an Israeli attack.
Throughout the fighting, Israel’s repeated airstrikes against Islamic Jihad and its command centers and missile launch sites showed no sign of stopping the rocket fire, prompting Islamic Jihad to declare victory and send cheering Palestinians to the streets late Saturday.
The Israeli army reported more than 1,400 launches during the fighting, with some rockets reaching as far away as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem areas. Israeli fighter jets hit more than 400 targets, according to a preliminary military count, which also showed that about a fifth of the rockets misfired and landed in Gaza, while most of the rest were either intercepted or landed in open areas.
An 80-year-old woman and a Palestinian worker working in Israel were killed by rockets. A Palestinian human rights organization said three people, including two children, were killed in Gaza by errant rockets.
It was the latest in a long line of fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza since the Islamist militant group Hamas took control of the coastal area in 2007. Israel and Hamas have fought four wars, and there have been countless smaller flare-ups as well.
The more powerful Hamas has praised Islamic Jihad attacks, but remained on the sidelines during the latest round of fighting, narrowing the scope of the conflict. While the de facto government is held responsible for the appalling conditions in the blockaded Gaza Strip, Hamas has recently tried to contain the conflict with Israel. Islamic Jihad, on the other hand, a more ideological and unruly militant group tied to violence, has taken the lead in the past few rounds of fighting with Israel.
Saturday’s deal failed to resolve many of the causes of the repeated fighting, including Israel’s continued blockade of Gaza, the large arsenals of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and Israeli policies in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The violence in Gaza came after more than a year of fighting in the occupied West Bank, where the Israeli army has made arrests almost nightly and Palestinians have repeatedly attacked. Tensions could rise again this week as nationalist Israelis hold an annual march through a sensitive area of Jerusalem’s Old City, seen as provocative by Palestinians.
Israel captured the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza in the 1967 Middle East War. The Palestinians claim all three areas for a future state. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, but Hamas subsequently overran the area and expelled forces loyal to the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority.
Israel and Egypt have maintained a blockade of Gaza in what Israel says is a policy aimed at preventing Hamas from arming. Palestinians and international rights groups say the policy restricting the movement of people and goods into and out of Gaza amounts to collective punishment.
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Goldenberg reported from Tel Aviv, Israel.
