Israel Matzav

Surprise: Gazans preparing for war

What a surprise. The Financial Times of London reports that Gaza is once again preparing for war.

International donors, analysts, and political figures in Gaza say warning signs of a new conflict have appeared less than a year after last summer’s war, the bloodiest of three Israel and Hamas have fought since 2009. Dubbed Operation Protective Edge by the Israelis, it killed more than 2,200 people, mostly Palestinians, and ended without a long-term truce between the two sides.

On Thursday evening sirens sounded in southern Israel after a rocket was fired from inside Gaza, Israel’s military said, underscoring the tension at the border.

“Since the end of the recent aggression of the Israelis in Gaza, we have begun preparations for the next war,” a PFLP leader who calls himself Abu Jamal says at a café in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza. “We expect at any time that there might be an aggression on Gaza, especially in light of the changes in the Middle East and the result of Israeli elections where the extreme right wing gained popularity.” 

Six months after the international community pledged $3.5bn to rebuild Gaza, barely a quarter of the funds have been released and “further conflict is inevitable”, a group of 46 aid agencies warned last week. Donor fatigue with the conflict, and misgivings about a frozen reconciliation process between Hamas and Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah, have stalled the rebuilding process.

According to Basil Nasser, acting head of the UN development programme’s Gaza office, only Qatar and Kuwait have begun paying in money to rebuild some of the more than 10,000 houses destroyed or severely damaged during the war.

“If something dramatic doesn’t happen in the Gaza Strip with regard to the reconstruction process, the probability of another violent round is higher,” says Kobi Michael, an analyst with the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.

In addition to its training exercises at the northern border, Hamas has been rebuilding its arsenal and firing test rockets into the sea.

I'm shocked - just totally shocked.

By the way, when was the last time you heard about a terrorist leader sitting in a cafe in Iraq or Afghanistan? Must be those cruel Jews' fault for letting him out of his hole.

Labels: Gaza, Hamas, Hamas rockets, Operation Protective Edge, Palestinian terrorism

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:33 PM