Israel, Hamas 'exchange calming messages' on Gaza

Both sides seek to clarify they are uninterested in tensions over terror tunnels escalating into open conflict

Israel and Hamas have exchanged calming messages in recent days, assuring one another that they are not interested in open conflict, Hebrew media reported Friday.

The messages were conveyed through Turkey and Qatar, among other countries.

Security officials told Ynet news that Israeli security officials were concerned that rising tensions, on both sides of the border, over Hamas’s renewed efforts to tunnel under the Gaza border would cause the terror group to assume an Israeli assault was forthcoming. This could possibly lead it to attack Israel preemptively.

A senior Hamas official told The Times of Israel Thursday that Hamas does not want war and is committed to maintaining the fragile ceasefire with Israel.

Despite Hamas’s recent pronouncements that its tunnels reach into Israeli territory and it is working to launch “high-quality” terror attacks against Israelis from the West Bank, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity: “Our stance is clear: we don’t want an escalation [of violence] and we don’t want war.”

“We have no intention at this time or in the future to begin a war, and from our perspective that option is not on the table,” the official said, urging Israel to respond with restraint to the recent Hamas rhetoric.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to hit Gaza harder than during the 2014 war with Gaza-based fighters, amid mounting public pressure over reports of increased tunnel building out of Gaza.

“In the event we are attacked from tunnels in the Gaza Strip, we will act very forcefully against Hamas, and with much more force than Operation Protective Edge,” Netanyahu told a conference of Israeli diplomats, referring to the 50-day war in the Gaza Strip in 2014.

IDF officials and southern residents have expressed concern in recent days that Hamas is rebuilding the subterranean passages, used for attacking Israel, which were destroyed during the 2014 war. Some residents have reported hearing digging sounds, but IDF checks have turned up no actual tunnels.

The last week has seen at least three separate tunnel collapses in the Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian reports, killing several diggers.

Avi Issacharoff contributed to this report.