Middle East Tension escalates between Israel and factions in the Gaza Strip

Just a few hours after the departure of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who tried in Jerusalem and Ramallah to wrest action from the leadership to prevent further escalation between Israelis and Palestinians, Gaza and southern Israel returned to the old routine

Middle East Tension escalates between Israel and factions in the Gaza Strip

Just a few hours after the departure of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who tried in Jerusalem and Ramallah to wrest action from the leadership to prevent further escalation between Israelis and Palestinians, Gaza and southern Israel returned to the old routine. The Israeli Air Force attacked two objectives of the Islamist group Hamas in the center of the Gaza Strip as a reaction to the projectile launched on Wednesday afternoon against the city of Sderot and intercepted by the defensive battery "Iron Dome". On both sides of the border there were no deaths or injuries.

"In response to the firing of projectiles from Gaza into Israel, fighter jets attacked a manufacturing, maintenance and storage site for chemical raw materials used for the production of rockets and a weapons production site of the Hamas terrorist group," the army said. after the attack this morning that was accompanied by another burst of 12 Palestinian projectiles against southern Israel. According to the armed wing of the fundamentalist movement, its troops also fired at Israeli aircraft.

"We hold the terrorist group responsible for all the activities that come out of the Gaza Strip and must bear the consequences of the security violations against Israel," added the Army while Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said that "the attacks of the occupation Zionist forces in Gaza are a continuation of their aggression against our people, our land, holy sites and the escalation against our prisoners. The radical policies of the right-wing Zionist government may be the opening for escalation on the ground."

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades (a militia linked to Al Fatah) claimed responsibility for the attack on the Israeli city of Sderot, upholding, like Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the cause of the Palestinian prisoners. The trigger for their projectiles in this case would be the decision of the authorities of the Damon prison, in northern Israel, to isolate Palestinian prisoners as punishment for having celebrated the attack last Friday in which a Palestinian shot and killed seven people in front of a synagogue north of Jerusalem. After being isolated, a prisoner unsuccessfully tried to burn her cell. "The dams are a red line. The attack against prisoners has very serious consequences," warns the militia linked to Al Fatah, which, like the rest of the Palestinian factions, denounced sanctions such as the ban on visits. On social networks, the petition of one of the prisoners was disseminated asking the armed groups of Gaza to respond with projectiles against Israel.

Under strong criticism from the right and even declared disappointment from some of its deputies for not fulfilling their well-known promises of a "strong hand against terrorists" after the attack last Friday (the most serious since 2011 in Israel) and the twenty projectiles Launched in the last week from Gaza, the new Minister of National Security, the ultranationalist Itamar Ben Gvir, intends to toughen the conditions of prisoners convicted of participating in or planning attacks. In fact, he himself interpreted the last projectiles yesterday as a reaction to his announcement and specifically to his decision to close the bakeries of the prisoners of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in which they themselves make their breads (pitas) in two jails.

"The camps and parties of terrorists in prisons are over. They should not receive anything beyond what the law requires," proclaims Ben Gvir, although the internal security service (Shabak) warns that the announced measures could cause disturbances in the prisons and projectiles from Gaza against Israel.

The Penitentiary Service, which is also opposed to toughening its conditions, has raised its alert status this afternoon due to fear of attacks by prisoners against its staff. If the new policy is fulfilled - warns the leadership of the Palestinian prisoners - they will begin a hunger strike on March 22. With or without a strike, Ramadan is marked on the calendar of the security officials of Israel and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) as a probable date for a new escalation. In such a case, it would revolve around the two great issues that all Palestinian groups and sectors have in consensus: Al Aqsa and its prisoners.

According to several Arab media, leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad have been invited to Cairo to start negotiations with the Egyptian mediator with the aim of avoiding a confrontation between Gaza and Israel.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project