Gaza groups getting ready to face growing tension in West Bank

According to a report by The Jerusalem Post, the military wings of several Palestinian factions have launched a large-scale, joint maneuver in the Gaza Strip. This became evident amid growing tensions in the West Bank after Hamas and other Gaza-based factions called for stepping up attacks against Israel.

The move was made in the wake of unconfirmed reports that Egyptian mediation efforts to prevent an all-out military confrontation between the Palestinian groups and Israel have failed.

The maneuver, the second of its kind aims to raise military readiness for a possible confrontation with Israel and increase coordination between the factions, according to the “Joint Room of the Palestinian Resistance Factions,” which includes most of the armed groups in the Gaza Strip.

The maneuver will continue for several days at training sites, it said in a statement. At least 12 groups were taking part in the exercise, Palestinian sources said.

Earlier this month, Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, held a military exercise called Shield of Jerusalem. The drill was held to mark the 34th anniversary of the founding of Hamas.

Late last year, the Gaza-based groups held a similar joint exercise in the Gaza Strip to exchange expertise and enhance combat preparedness.

The latest joint maneuver came one week after the armed wings of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) said they had reached an agreement to strengthen the resistance against Israel and increase coordination between the two groups. Hamas and PIJ praised the growing attacks against Israelis in the West Bank and Jerusalem, saying they came in response to settler terrorism and crimes of the Zionist occupation soldiers.

The groups also expressed full support for all forms of attacks against Israel.

Over the past two weeks, senior Hamas and PIJ officials held a series of meetings in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon to discuss preparations for a possible military confrontation with Israel.

Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal and PIJ Secretary-General Ziyad al-Nakhalah, who met in Beirut two weeks ago, issued a joint statement in which they agreed on the importance of strengthening the resistance especially in the West Bank. 

They emphasized their adherence to the option of resistance as the only way to confront the occupation, liberate the land and restore rights of Palestinians.

Mustafa al-Sawwaf, a Hamas-affiliated political analyst, said the meetings and the joint maneuver aims to send a warning to Israel that the groups are ready to repel any aggression on the Gaza Strip.

 “This could be the last warning before the explosion,” he told the Quds News Network, adding that the warning was also directed toward the Egyptians, who have been acting as mediators to avoid another war in the Gaza Strip.

Mohammed Abu Askar, a senior Hamas official in the Gaza Strip, said the joint exercise was aimed at sending a message to Israel that the Palestinian factions are ready for a military confrontation.

Another Hamas official, Zaher Jabarin, said the West Bank is witnessing a massive popular uprising.  The Palestinians are ready to make sacrifices until they achieve victory, he said.

The Palestinian Authority, meanwhile, said the Palestinians will not allow the continued aggressions of the occupation and its settlers in the West Bank.

PA presidential spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudaineh accused Israel of playing with fire, adding that the situation in the West Bank has become unacceptable and intolerable.

The Palestinians possess all the means to defend their rights, and their capabilities and determination should not be underestimated, he said.

Abu Rudeineh said more than 250 Palestinians were injured in violent clashes with soldiers and settlers in the northern West Bank over the past 24 hours.

He also criticized the international community for remaining silent in the face of these repeated crimes.

Hussein al-Sheikh, Head of the PA’s General Authority of Civil Affairs and a member of the Fatah Central Committee, called on the international community to provide immediate protection for the Palestinians, who are being killed and are having their homes and lands burned by organized racist gangs.

The PA Foreign Affairs Ministry said it was astonished by the failure of the international community to speak out against the violence by the IDF and settlers.

The clashes that erupted in the village of Burka in the northern West Bank over the past two days prove that international protection for the Palestinians has become a necessity, the ministry said.

Can Bennett-Sisi cooperation restore peace in Middle East?

Israeli Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett met Egyptian Pres­ident Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Monday, on the first visit by a prime minister of the Jewish state to the North African country in over a decade. 

Sisi hosted Bennett in the Red Sea resort of Sharm-el-Sheikh where they discussed “efforts to revive the peace process” between the Israelis and Palestinians, presidential spoke­sman Bassam Radi informed.

Security cooperation between the two countries was also discussed at the meeting attended by Egyptian Intelligence Chief, Abbas Kamel and Israel’s National Security Advisor, Eyal Holata.

Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous country, in 1979 became the first Arab state to sign a peace treaty with Israel, after decades of enmity.

In May this year, Egypt played a key role in brokering a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that rules the Gaza Strip, after 11 days of deadly fighting.

Egypt regularly receives leaders of Hamas as well as of its political rival the Palestinian Authority led by Mahmud Abbas, while maintaining strong diplomatic, security and economic ties with Israel.

Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid on Sunday had proposed improving living conditions in Gaza and building new infrastructure in exchange for calm from Hamas, aiming to solve the “never-ending rounds of violence”.

But “it won’t happen without the support and involvement of our Egyptian partners and without their ability to talk to everyone involved”, he said.

Bennett’s visit came about 10 days after Abbas was in Cairo for talks with Sisi.

Monday’s talks mark “an important step in light of the growing security and economic relations between the two countries, and their mutual concern over the situation in Gaza”, Cairo-based analyst Nael Shama said.

It also fits with “Egypt’s plans to revive the political talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority”, he added.

Bennett, a right-wing religious nationalist, took office in June, ending Benjamin Netanyahu’s 12 straight years as Israel’s premier.

The last meeting between an Egyptian President and an Israeli Premier dates back to January 2011 when Hosni Mubarak received Netanyahu, weeks before Mubarak was toppled in a popular revolution.

In the political turbulence that followed, relations between the two countries deteriorated as protests were staged outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo in 2011.

The one-year reign of Egypt’s Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2012 also proved to be icy, with Israel suspicious of his Muslim Brotherhood’s close ties to Hamas.

Sisi has again positioned Egypt as a regional bulwark of stability, echoing the frequent peace summits overseen by Mubarak before his ouster.

Israel and Egypt are two of Washington’s main allies in the Middle East and are the largest recipients of US military aid, and they have worked together on security issues. Sisi, in a 2019 interview on CBS, acknowledged Egypt’s army was working closely with Israel in combating “terrorists” in the restive North Sinai.

He underscored Cairo’s wide range of cooperation with Israel.

The relationship developed after Egypt regained sovereignty over the Sinai Peninsula, which Israel occupied in the 1967 Six-Day War.

The two neighbors have also deepened their ties in the field of energy. Since last year, Egypt has received natural gas from Israel to liquefy and re-export to Europe.

 

Bennett urged to meet Abbas at the earliest

I am inclined to refer to an editorial of The Jerusalem Post. It says, “A strong Palestine Authority (PA) is in Israel’s interest, Bennett needs to keep that in mind.” The concluding line also resolves the mystery why Israeli Defense Minister, Benny Gantz met Mahmoud Abbas, President Palestine Authority (PA) in Ramallah recently.

The newspaper writes, “The signals from Prime Minister Naftali Bennett that he has no plans to meet Abbas do not augur well. It is in Israel’s strategic interest that Bennett put politics aside and invite Abbas for talks as soon as possible, not only to establish a high-level dialogue to discuss issues of bilateral interest and provide hope for future peace negotiations but also – if necessary – to stand together to prevent war and violence.”

Bennett’s spokesman dismissed reports on Wednesday that the prime minister would attend a summit in Cairo with Abbas, Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi and Jordanian King Abdullah.

The London-based Arabic newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat had reported that Bennett had been “disinvited” from what would have been a quadrilateral meeting in Egypt. The spokesman clarified that while Bennett is scheduled to travel soon to Cairo to meet Sisi, no date has been set yet for the meeting.

Abbas traveled to Cairo on Wednesday for the trilateral meeting with Sisi and King Abdullah. Palestinian official Azzam al-Ahmed said that the three Arab leaders would discuss coordinated positions ahead of Abbas’s address to the UN General Assembly later this month.

Contacts were also under way to hold an Arab summit to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he added.

The Cairo summit took place days after Defense Minister Benny Gantz met Abbas in Ramallah. It was the first high-level meeting between the sides in close to a decade, and Gantz promised that Israel would make a series of goodwill gestures to the PA, including a NIS 500 million loan.

The summit also came a week after Bennett had his first meeting with President Joe Biden in Washington, where he made clear that he had no intention of meeting with Abbas or engaging in peace negotiations on a future Palestinian state.

“There is no diplomatic process with the Palestinians, nor will there be one,” a source close to Bennett insisted after the Abbas-Gantz meeting, for which he had to give his approval.

This statement is unwise and offensive to the ears of the US and the international community. Why would an Israeli prime minister oppose a diplomatic process with the Palestinians?

Bennett does not have to support a Palestinian state, but there are other important issues to address for the sake of both Israelis and Palestinians.

For example, what if Hamas decides to launch a new war from Gaza? Shouldn’t the Israeli and Palestinian leaders establish a direct channel of communications, and join forces against any aggression that threatens people of these countries, peace and stability?

What if Hamas were to make a move to establish control over the West Bank, or to once again fan the flames of violence and unrest inside Israel or the West Bank, as it did in May during the last IDF operation in the Gaza Strip?

Wouldn’t it be beneficial for Israel’s prime minister to be able to talk directly to the leader of the Palestinian Authority?

The US has been the main broker for past Israeli-Palestinian talks, the last round of which came in 2014. But so far Biden has not shown any interest in kick-starting a new process.

In a Zoom talk to the Nizami Ganjavi International Center on Tuesday, PA Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh declared “Washington does not have a peace initiative at all.”

The new Israeli government, he said, “has no political platform and no initiative to end the conflict with us. It seems to me that all it cares for is to maintain the status quo, and all of us know that the status quo is unsustainable,” adding that this “political vacuum… is very dangerous.”

Shtayyeh concluded that the vacuum “needs to be filled with some initiative. The US does not have an initiative, Europe does not have an initiative, the Israelis have no idea how to end the conflict with us… and Arab countries are going in a totally different direction.”

Unfortunately, Shtayyeh is right. We urge the prime minister to pick up the phone and schedule a meeting with Abbas at his earliest convenience.