Tensions between Israel and Palestine again peaked in May 2021 week as Hamas rocket attacks and Israeli airstrikes kept the world on tenterhooks, taking it to the brink of a full-fledged war even as the battle with Covid-19 was raging. The rocket attacks by Hamas began 17 May targeting Ashkelon, an Israeli city close to the Gaza Strip, and Tel Aviv, claiming five lives, including an Indian woman working in Israel.
The attack began after tensions rose over forced evictions of Palestinians from the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in Jerusalem. Israel hit back hard as it launched a barrage of airstrikes that have killed over 35 Palestinians. The strikes also resulted in the killing of several top commanders of Hamas, which was announced by the militant group itself as well as by Israel.
What is Hamas?
Hamas, or Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya (Islamic Resistance Movement), a militant outfit that was co-founded by Sheikh Ahmed Ismail Hassan Yassin from Ashkelon in June 1989 after he and his son were tortured by Israeli soldiers during an interrogation in prison. As strife between Israel and Palestine continued to soar as the latter resorted to the First Intifada, or uprising, in December 1987, Hamas as an organisation led by Sunni-Islamic fundamentalists, began to take shape. Hamas could gain immediate and immense popularity within the protesting Palestinians because it was able to fill the political space left by Yaseer Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). Currently, Hamas is led by Ismail Abdel Salam Ahmed Haniyeh, who heads the group’s political wing and is regarded to be a close aide of Yassin Arafat.
Will Israel ever be able to eliminate Hamas?
With tensions continuing unabated in the last couple of weeks, many have said that Hamas is now trying to start a “Third Intifada”.
However, it is unlikely that Hamas will be successful to start The third Intifada this time because unlike the Second Intifada of 2000, there is “no comparable unifying force today. Today, in its role as the government of Gaza — a role that Hamas took over in 2007 as a result of infighting in Gaza city — and as a leading Palestinian resistance group to Israel, the group faces numerous challenges.
As the de facto ruler of Gaza since 2007, Hamas has succeeded in keeping power despite Israeli, U.S., and international pressure, as well as repeated Israeli military incursions. The isolation, however, prevents Gaza from growing economically and keeps the humanitarian situation dire. Hamas, may continue with the rocket launches and Israel will continue to retaliate hard, Egypt and other neighbours along with the US may succeed in diffusing the situation. But the question remains on whether Israel will ever be successful in completely eliminating Hamas, which remains its primary goal.
The solution to ending the present crisis now probably lies in whether Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas takes Palestine to polls that were initially scheduled for 22 May, the first in more than 15 years, but now stand postponed.