Hamas who did not join the Islamic Jihad in its war against Israel is now.
explaining its position to the angry Gazan public and the Islamic Jihad organization is aligning its propaganda line with it, the Islamic Jihad is looking for a quick way to recover from the strong blow it received from the IDF and a confrontation with Hamas in the Gaza Strip is not currently serving its goals despite the rivalry between the two organizations.
Hamas is a natural partner of the Islamic Jihad with the same ideology, both are members of the axis of resistance led by Iran, despite this, Iran and Hezbollah did not help the Islamic Jihad in the war either.
This axis has been waving the new slogan of the "unity of the fronts" for several months now, despite this, in practice nothing happened during the 3 days of fighting in Gaza, the various fronts kept quiet and left the Islamic Jihad to fight alone.
Not only Hamas abandoned the Islamic Jihad, but also the other partners in the axis of resistance, the Palestinians in the territories and the Israeli Arabs also fell silent.
Hamas showed great restraint due to pragmatic and egoistic considerations in order to protect its interests, as it did in Operation "Black Belt" in 2019 after the assassination of the senior Islamic Jihad leader Baha'i Abu al-Atta by Israel, Hamas sent a representative on its behalf to the joint war room of the Palestinian factions that was opened, he helped the Islamic Jihad logistically and even offered it technical assistance to overcome the malfunctions in launching the rockets that caused dozens of them to fall in the Gaza Strip and kill innocent Palestinians, the Islamic Jihad refused to receive help from Hamas.
Hamas officials claim that the organization's restraint has paid off politically, which justifies its decision not to participate in the fighting.
According to Hamas officials, the decision of the organization's leadership embarrassed Israel, which has always portrayed Hamas as a terrorist organization and proved that the organization can show restraint in sensitive situations and is unwilling to shed blood.
It was also important for Hamas to emphasize that its military wing is not in Iran's pocket, even though it receives financial aid and weapons from it.
This caused the USA, European countries and Egypt and Jordan to be satisfied with Hamas's decision.
According to European sources, Hamas's decision indicates that it sees the good of the Gazan public and opens the door to a future political dialogue with it.
The Quartet has treated the Hamas movement since 2007 as a terrorist organization and set 3 conditions for the cancellation of its decision :
Recognition of Israel, condemnation of terrorism and respect of the agreements signed between Israel and the PLO.
Israel says that Hamas is a terrorist organization that has not changed and that it played the role of a wolf in sheep's clothing in the last round of fighting
.
Islamic Jihad is angry at the position of Hamas but does not show it outwardly, Hamas is the sovereign in the Gaza Strip and the Islamic Jihad needs its help in almost every field.
The message that the two organizations send to the outside is of unity , the decision was joint and Hamas helped the Islamic Jihad and coordinated positions with it.
The decision of Hamas not to participate in the fighting was a strategic decision made by the top of the organization because of broad political considerations that can be defended against the criticism of the public in Gaza.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad are now presenting a unified position against Israel's claims of serious disputes between the two organizations and claim that this is Israeli psychological warfare designed to continue conflict between them.
The last round of fighting ended with a heavy blow to the Palestinians, even though the Islamic Jihad launched more than a thousand rockets at Israel: 4 dead, including 17 children, and more than 350 wounded according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, 12 of the dead are members of the Islamic Jihad, including senior commanders of the organization Taysir Al-jabari and Khaled Mansour.
Ahmed Almoudalal, a member of the political bureau of the Islamic Jihad, whose son Ziyad was killed in the IDF attack on the house where Khaled Mansour was hiding, confirms that his organization suffered a severe blow from the IDF.
"The last round of fighting was difficult, we lost our senior commanders but we replaced them within minutes
"
The danger of the renewal of the conflict has not yet passed, in Israel and in the Gaza Strip they are waiting for the Egyptian mediation regarding the demand of the Islamic Jihad to release its two operatives Khalil Al-Awawda and Bassam al-Saadi from the Israeli prison, a demand that was not met and led to the latest round of fighting, the Hamas organization will try to moderate the position of the the Islamic Jihad it does not want a new round of fighting.
Yoni Ben Menachem
Senior Middle East Analyst
