Tensions at the Israel-Gaza border have been heating up in recent days, resulting in an escalation of Israeli military action not seen for some time.
While it is now a month after President Trump’s highly controversial announcement recognizing Israel as Jerusalem’s capital, the effects of this announcement are still being seen in the most sensitive clash point of Israelis and Palestinians.
President Trump’s announcement, which broke with decades of American policy, initially triggered violent demonstrations all over the West Bank that saw, for a brief period, serious clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinian rioters. That phenomenon has pretty much petered out. The organized acts of protest from the Gazan side, however, have not.
Recently, a journalist from Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth, one of the country’s primary media outlets, visited the border area to observe soldiers of the IDF’s Gaza Division who have been charged with keeping Palestinians from penetrating Israel. As the report shows, this task is a full time job. The unrelenting and escalated violence on the Palestinian side in recent weeks has not made their job any easier.
Not infrequently, such as when a group of Palestinians reaches the fence and attempts to dismantle it, snipers are given the green light to shoot. All soldiers have standing orders to aim for the lower part of the body.
Organized protests occur throughout the week with Fridays, an important day of prayer and worship in Islam, being the pinnacle. The images seen there have become typical: large piles of burning tires and thick plumes of dark smoke, with hundreds of chanting and flag wielding Palestinians nearby. All of this is no cause for alarm and soldiers do not interfere.
It is when small groups break off of the larger body of protesters that the troops must jump to alert. As these groups make a dash for the fence, they are covered by their comrades who launch small marbles from slingshots at the soldiers on the other side. These projectiles are as dangerous as bullets if they manage to hit a soldier in the head or other sensitive area, perhaps more dangerous when accounting for the shrapnel factor of exploding glass.
IDF snipers wait in the ready for any sign of danger like a protestor producing a weapon. Firing live ammunition is only allowed with the authorization of a battalion commander rank or higher.
Over time, Palestinians have dug a series of ditches along the border. Protesters use these small trenches to approach the security fence, hopping from ditch to ditch to avoid being seen by observing soldiers.
Not infrequently, such as when a group of Palestinians reaches the fence and attempts to dismantle it, snipers are given the green light to shoot. All soldiers have standing orders to aim for the lower part of the body. The goal, as one commander related, is to avoid fatalities as much as possible. “Fatalities on the Palestinian side only agitates them and inflames tensions, leading to more protests,” stated the commander, who remained anonymous.
The IDF will continue to use all the measures at its disposal, above and below ground, to thwart attacks against Israelis –IDF
The issue of fatalities resulting from protests has become a hot button issue as of late, following the death of Ibrahim Abu Thurayeh, a 29-year-old Palestinian amputee who was participating in a riot along the Gaza-Israel border on December 15.
At some point during the protest, during which the Palestinian’s hurled explosives and other projectiles at IDF personnel, Abu Thurayeh received a fatal injury. The Palestinians claim that Abu Thurayeh was shot in the head by Israeli soldiers. Israel claims that no live fire was aimed in Abu Thurayeh’s direction. The IDF has opened an investigation into the incident.
These regular scenarios on a minute scale, are a reflection of the broader escalating tensions between Israel and Gaza.
Last Wednesday, three mortar shells were fired from the Strip at the Eshkol regional district in Israel. The mortars fell in Israeli territory just hours apart, all of them landing in open, uninhabited fields. That attack followed an earlier incident from the latter half of last week, in which two 107mm Katyusha rockets were fired from the Strip. The rockets were aimed towards an area where a ceremony was being held in memory of Oron Shaul, the IDF soldier killed in a 2014 Gaza operation whose body is currently being held by Hamas.
While the rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system, they were followed by mortar shells, smaller then Katyushas but impervious to the Iron Dome. One of the mortars hit a home in a border-adjacent community, causing damage to the structure.
Israel retaliated for each of the attacks, in the first case returning fire with tanks and artillery, and in the second with an air force operation. According to the IDF announcement, the overnight raids targeted “significant terror infrastructure,” without going into more details. “The IDF will continue to use all the measures at its disposal, above and below ground, to thwart attacks against Israelis,” the military stated. “We are prepared and ready for a variety of scenarios and will act against any attempts to violate Israeli sovereignty.”
In all, five missiles have been launched from Gaza into Israel over roughly a week long period. This number does not include several unsuccessful launches in which missiles were fired, but did not penetrate Israel, instead landing inside Gaza.
The question now is where will this trend go? Gaza’s Hamas leaders have been relatively quiet, and have avoided escalation in response to Israeli action. Furthermore, many of the recent missile attacks on Israel are reportedly not even from Hamas itself, but from break-off Salafi militants not necessarily taking orders from the Hamas authorities.
Recent reports by Israeli media have indicated that Hamas has even arrested and tortured some of the Salafists behind these attacks, sending a clear message that it is not looking to raise the heat on the conflict – at least for now.
There are a few factors likely contributing to this more docile stance of Hamas at this time. At the top of the list is the profoundly dire situation in the Gaza Strip. Gazans have been suffering from an acute power shortage for months, which is threatening their most basic infrastructure.
According to the World Health Organization, the current trend could see Gaza hospitals without power in as little as two months. On Wednesday, the Palestinian Authority (PA), of which Hamas is technically a party to, announced that a reconciliation has been reached with Israel to supply power to Gaza.
While all of this may be an indication of Hamas moving in the right direction, from Israel’s perspective, it doesn’t matter who is the one doing the shooting.
The PA had requested Israel to cut power to the Strip in June in order to pressure Hamas to following along on peace talks with Israel. The more-peaceful-than-usual behavior of Hamas is probably because the group doesn’t want to offset whatever bargaining the PA has done on its behalf.
While all of this may be an indication of Hamas moving in the right direction, from Israel’s perspective, it doesn’t matter who is the one doing the shooting.
Gaza is still a threat to Israel’s safety and continued attacks could push Israeli leaders into a corner and force more substantial operations. The response of Gaza’s leaders to both the recent Israeli retaliations and the upcoming relief of power supply will give insight as to where this recent uptick in the conflict is going.
