The Hamas organization did not participate in the fighting against Israel, along with the Islamic Jihad.
Even though a representative of its military wing sat in the joint headquarters of the Palestinian factions that was opened in Gaza for the operation that the Islamic called
.”The Unity of the Fronts”.
The claim of security officials In Israel, that the Israeli policy to split between Hamas and Islamic Jihad succeeded is ridiculous, it was a pre-agreed agreement between the two organizations that had nothing to do with Israel.
This is not the first time that Hamas does not join the Islamic Jihad’s fight against Israel, as already happened in operation “Black Belt” In 2019, after Israel assassinated Baha Abu al-Ata, the senior military commander of the Islamic Jihad.
Hamas simply wanted to maintain its achievements, its decision not to participate in the fighting can be explained with the following reasons.
A. Hamas is the sovereign in the Gaza Strip and is also responsible for the economic and social situation, it did not want more than two million Palestinians living in the Strip to lose the monetary relief and international aid, the supply of electricity and fuel, the monthly Qatari grant for the needy amounting to 30 million dollars and the ability to import and export goods.
B. A desire that Egypt will speed up the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip from the damages of the last war, a few weeks ago coordination between Hamas and Egypt began on speeding up the reconstruction.
The Hamas leadership decided that Gaza strip should not go on a new round of fighting against Israel every year and that the population of the Gaza Strip should be given air to breathe and time to recover between one round of fighting to another..
C. Hamas has not yet completed the reconstruction of the tunnel system (the “Metro”)
that was damaged in the last war in May 2021 and did not renew all of its rocket inventory.
d. Hamas wants to move towards a new prisoner exchange deal with Israel, two weeks ago progress was made thanks to Egypt’s mediation efforts on the issue and it feared that a new war would disrupt it..
These were the main considerations of Hamas for its decision not to join the fighting, now it is the turn of the carrots that it will receive from Egypt and Israel for its wise decision.
Yoni Ben Menachem
Senior Middle East Analyst
