For many years Iran has enjoyed close relations with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in the Gaza Strip. For years this backing has taken primarily the form of military aid – weaponry and know-how for self-manufacturing and the training of personnel. This was complemented by financial assistance (hundreds of millions of dollars annually) and political backing in public events, in order to place the Palestinian issue on the global agenda.
Hamas’s takeover of Gaza in June 2007 created a new reality on Egypt’s northern border, which constitutes the only border of the Gaza Strip that is not under Israeli control. Over the past decade, Egyptian interests have evolved in accordance with regional changes as well as the respective postures of the three presidents who ruled Egypt in this period: Husni Mubarak, Mohamed Morsi, and Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. In tandem, Hamas’s control over Gaza has incurred a range of implications for Egyptian interests at the military, political,...
With the disengagement in the summer of 2005, Israel hoped to be freed of the burden of the Gaza Strip, which today has a population of almost two million. The disengagement also sought to confront the Palestinians with the challenge of state-building and establishing a functional, responsible political entity, and to bring about a fundamental change in the nature of the ongoing conflict between the Palestinians and Israel. The effects of the disengagement, however, did not meet these expectations. Approximately half a year after the...
With a link between Gaza’s economic situation and the repeated armed clashes between Israel and Hamas, a sustainable solution to the conflict must address this economic dimension. The solution, which needs to be facilitated by international support, should be at the top of the Israeli government’s agenda before a new war erupts. This article describes briefly the key indicators of the Gaza economy and possible future developments.
The Gaza Strip is currently facing a dire humanitarian crisis with potentially devastating implications. Lack of clean water for domestic use and unsafe sanitary conditions pose a serious public health threat to the two million people living in the Gaza Strip. By now, large amounts of untreated wastewater have already crossed Gaza’s borders and created additional repercussions for several neighboring communities in Egypt and Israel, with Israel at one point forced to close two of its beaches.
While commonly thought of as a means by Israel to combat legitimate security threats, the closure of Gaza was in fact also implemented as a means of imposing pressure on the civilian population and the de facto ruler of Gaza – Hamas. While some changes were made on access to the Strip, remaining restrictions, ongoing hostilities, and successive military operations as well as the Palestinian political divide have resulted in continued intense suffering. Ten years since the Hamas takeover, civilians continue to pay the price for the...
In order to avoid another conflict with Israel, Hamas has taken action to prevent attacks against Israel by the jihad factions operating in the Gaza Strip, and the organization has even established a restraining force that prevents shooting incidents from the border area with Israel or makes arrests if shooting incidents occur. Under these conditions, along with the strengthening of the terrorist infrastructure in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and the permission granted for controlled popular demonstrations in the proximity of...
The Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah, controlled by Fatah and Mahmoud Abbas, perceives the situation in the Gaza Strip, as well as its involvement in any reconstruction projects there, through the lens of its own political gains. Fatah’s main political interest remains to ensure its dominance, in terms of power and support, over the Hamas movement, which has ruled the Gaza Strip since the Palestinian legislative elections of 2006.
One of the most significant changes in Gaza over the past decade is without a doubt Hamas’s rise to power and the group’s consolidation of political, social, and military control of the Strip. Although as of late 2017 Hamas’s governance project remains in a precarious position, its authority over the Gaza Strip remains fundamentally unchallenged. Any long term policy proposal with respect to Gaza must take this reality into account and weigh the complex balance of power between Hamas and the other political factions and civilian...
The current situation in the Gaza Strip is marked by several primary phenomena, led by Gaza’s severe economic plight and deteriorated infrastructure. These hardships aggravate humanitarian distress, which in turn motivates belligerent tendencies and heightens the danger of security escalation between Israel and Hamas and other terrorist forces operating in the Strip. Additional parameters include Hamas’s comprehensive and stable control of the region; the organization’s proven capacity for destructive activity, both in the Israeli-...
Conditions in the Gaza Strip today resemble those that prevailed before previous rounds of hostilities, above all Operation Protective Edge, and it thus appears that the road to a further round of fighting in Gaza – after over three years of relative quiet – is growing shorter. For over a month, there has been steady rocket and mortar fire from the Gaza Strip toward Israel. Israel’s response strategy currently appears ineffective, and Hamas too finds it hard to stop the shooting. If Israel wishes to avoid escalation, it must...
In 2017, the major actors in the international arena continued the cautious policy of recent years: a limited investment of resources in the Middle East, based on the desire to avoid falling into regional cauldrons that continue to simmer, though mostly on a low flame. Among the principal events that preoccupied the international actors were the ongoing campaign against the Islamic State, the stabilization of the Bashar al-Assad regime, and the worsening Sunni-Shiite conflict, especially between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Other important...
