End of the truce? Hamas seeks escalation and again threatens to destroy Tel Aviv
From Jerusalem – Israel deploys its Iron Dome missile defense system again, following new threats from Hamas. In recent days, the terrorist movement has said it will return to launching missiles later this week if Israel does not allow funding from Qatar, its largest financier, to enter Gaza. Israel replied that it will only allow the funding to enter if Hamas releases the four Israeli citizens who have been hostages in Gaza for seven years. Two of the hostages are Sergeant Oren Shaul and Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, who died in the 2014 war. The other two are Avraham Mengistu, an Israeli of Ethiopian origin from Ashkelon, and Hisham al-Sayed, an Arab-Israeli from a Bedouin village in the Negev. Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, however, said the hostages will only be released if Israel frees 1,111 Palestinian prisoners from their prisons. Media in Gaza close to Hamas, such as Gaza Alan , then added that Israel should release 1,111 prisoners for each hostage, so that would be 4,444 prisoners. An exchange that Israel is unwilling to accept in either case.
Last Thursday, in addition, a group of settlers proposed to reorganize the "march of the flags", an annual commemoration to celebrate the unity of Jerusalem, achieved with the Six Days War of 1967. The march had already taken place last 10 May (the day Hamas fired missiles on Jerusalem), but – on that occasion – the police had changed the route, preventing the demonstrators from entering the Damascus Gate (which leads to the Muslim quarter in the Old City) and parade on the Temple Mount / Esplanade of the Mosques, just to avoid friction with the Arab population. Now the settlers try again and say they want to march "with their heads held high" to show they are not intimidated by Hamas threats.
However, Israeli defense minister Benny Gantz said the march must be canceled, because it risks turning into a useless and dangerous provocation. For now – if there is a demonstration – it seems that the settlers will not cross the Muslim quarter anyway and will be allowed to parade only up to the Western Wall, passing through the Armenian quarter. Hamas said that if the protesters set foot on the Temple Mount, where the Al-Aqsa Mosque is located, it will "raze" Israel.
The settlers, who represent the electoral base of Naftali Bennet (leader of the Yamina party, "Right"), are now embittered by the position of Gantz, who in addition to being defense minister is also the leader of the centrist party Kahol Lavan , which is part of the coalition that will have to win the trust of the Knesset next week. At this point, if the demonstration does not take place, some deputies of Yamina , taking on the frustrations of the settlers, could vote against the trust in the new government headed by Bennett, and Bibi Netanyahu would continue her mandate, at least until the next elections. At the same time, however, if there was a demonstration (Israeli police said Sunday evening that, in principle, they approve the demonstration scheduled for Thursday), and Hamas started firing missiles at Israel again, the vote of confidence would be postponed. sine die .
In the meantime, Hamas is looking for other reasons to restart the escalation, relaunching the slogan "Save Sheikh Jarrah" , the East Jerusalem neighborhood that has become one of the symbols-pretexts of the battle of Hamas, after the eviction of some families was requested. Palestinians, including Al-Kurd, whose sons Muna and Mohammed, faces of the protest, were arrested on Sunday for participating in "riots" and then released in the afternoon.
Meanwhile, on June 5, in a speech held in front of Gaza University faculty, Sinwar said the eleven day war (called the Al-Quds sword battle) was just a taste of Hamas' potential, assuring that the next confrontation with Israel will change the shape of the Middle East. Sinwar then recalled that the movement came out victorious from the war, using only 50 percent of its capabilities, while Israel – according to the leader of Gaza – failed to destroy even 5 percent of their capabilities. Sinwar, with the confident attitude of one who knows he can win again, then reiterated that Hamas can destroy Tel Aviv by launching 130 missiles per minute. An escalation therefore seems inevitable and on Sunday evening Israel raised the alert in the south of the country and in the West Bank.
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This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Atlantico Quotidiano at the URL http://www.atlanticoquotidiano.it/quotidiano/fine-della-tregua-hamas-cerca-lescalation-e-minaccia-nuovamente-di-distruggere-tel-aviv/ on Mon, 07 Jun 2021 03:56:00 +0000.