Islamic Jihad takes revenge on Hamas

Islamic Jihad fired rockets from Gaza into Israel on Sunday night because it was angry at Hamas for killing a senior commander.

Apparently, the six rockets fired into southern Israel (two of which were intercepted by an Iron Dome system near Ashkelon) are Islamic Jihad's way of settling the score with Hamas, after an Islamic Jihad activist was killed as he was being arrested by Hamas security personnel in Gaza.

Islamic Jihad does not believe Hamas' claims that the activist either committed suicide, or was killed as a result of his own weapon misfiring. The turmoil continued at the activist's funeral, as another Islamic Jihad member was injured after being run over by a Hamas vehicle.

In the past, Islamic Jihad has reacted to internal conflicts with Hamas by trying to increase tension with Israel along the Gaza border. But Israel seems sure that Hamas is not interested in escalation along the border, especially as Hamas has attempted to calm the situation since Sunday night. Thus, Israel restricted its responses to an aerial attack on a weapons cache, and an Islamic Jihad command center, while also temporarily closing border crossings. In addition, Israel stated that it will hold Hamas responsible for restoring the relative quiet, as the governing body in Gaza.

Since the ceasefire that was put into place following Operation Pillar of Defense, with Egyptian mediation, Hamas policy has remained the same: maintaining the calm, while understanding that another round of armed conflict with Israel could endanger Hamas rule and anger the Egyptians, with whom ties were reinvigorated following the Muslim Brotherhood's victory in the election. In order to guarantee the calm, Hamas recently mobilized a 600 soldier contingent with the primary objective of preventing rocket fire into Israel.

More on this latest fight between Hamas and Islamic Jihad here.