Hamas threatens escalation if tit-for-tat airstrikes continue

The military arm of terror group Hamas warned recently that continued Israeli attacks against its military positions in the Gaza Stip could lead to a wider conflict, in the first threat of its kind since a ceasefire agreement was reached following last year’s Operation Protective Edge.

The past several weeks have seen an uptick in tit-for-tat exchanges in Gaza, with Palestinians firing small volleys and Israeli aircraft attacking installations belonging to Hamas hours later.

Officials from the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades said this week that “the rules of the game will change” if Israel does not desist from carrying out punitive airstrikes against sites controlled by the group.

Israel holds Hamas, which is the de facto ruler of Gaza, responsible for all rocket fire from the Strip, though the recent instances of rocket fire have been claimed by smaller Islamist factions, including a Salafi group attempting to damage Hamas.

On Saturday night, at least one rocket fired from Gaza landed in an open area near Ashkelon, where residents reported hearing at least one explosion.

There have been no reports of injuries or damage in either the recent rocket fire or Israeli reprisals.

Until this point Hamas has held back from returning fire against the Israel strikes, which have included attacks on empty positions of the organization’s military wing.

Hamas has found itself beset in recent weeks by internal rivals as well as increased tensions with the Palestinian Authority, which it blamed Wednesday for a bombing campaign within the Strip.

Egypt warms up

Signaling a possible detente with Cairo after months of hostility, a communications channel between Cairo and Hamas leadership was recently restored, the Arab-language British newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reported Thursday.

In a further sign of warming ties, Egypt agreed Wednesday to open the Rafah crossing with Gaza.

The sole crossing between Gaza and Sinai has been open only sporadically over the past several years.

A delegation of foreign Hamas representatives met with an Egyptian intelligence chief who presented the country’s list of demands necessary for improving the relationship between Egypt and Hamas.

For example, the Egyptian official demanded that the group kick out any person associated with terrorist activities in the Sinai desert. According to Egyptian intelligence, some of the terrorists responsible for the recent wave of terror attacks against Egyptian troops in the Sinai are currently hiding out in the Gaza Strip.

In addition, Egpyt is demanding a crackdown on smuggling from Sinai into Gaza, and vice versa.

Last week, Egypt reversed a decision to blacklist Hamas as a terror group, despite its links to the Muslim Brotherhood, which was ousted from power in 2013 by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi

According to the Asharq Al-Awsat report, the decision was a result of the meeting between the Hamas delegation and the Egyptian official.

Hamas’s financial woes

At the same time, the current economic crisis in Gaza came to a head as Hamas closed Gaza branches of the Bank of Palestine Thursday.

The bank stopped transferring donations made to the group two months ago for fear of economic sanctions by the international community for “funding terrorism.” In the past, funds transferred to Hamas had been given to widows and orphans of deceased members of the terror group.

In response to the freeze, Hamas organized a protest outside of one of the bank’s branches on Thursday. Some of the same widows and orphans who receive donations took part in the demonstration, in which protesters held a mock killing of children.