Increasing cooperation between Qatar and Egypt has implications for regional geopolitics and specifically for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Most recently, it contributed to efforts to achieve calm between Israel and Hamas during Operation Guardian of the Walls, and was particularly significant during Operation Breaking Dawn. Enhanced coordination with Qatar was a force multiplier for Egyptian mediation in the Gaza Strip and made the influence of two countries more effective with regard to restraint of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and...
The response to Islamic Jihad threats last week and Operation Breaking Dawn hurt the supply of essential goods to Gaza, including fuel, and suspended the entry of Palestinian workers into Israel. This complicates Gaza’s economic recovery. Gaza’s GDP shrank more than 13 percent with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The graph charts GDP per capita in Gaza, 2019-2022.
Israel surprised Palestinian Islamic Jihad on Friday afternoon, August 5, 2022, when the IDF killed the organization’s commander of the northern Gaza Strip and thwarted units arrayed to attack Israelis in the Gaza perimeter. In the conditions created so far, and particularly with Hamas outside the military campaign, Israel has an interest in a rapid end to the fighting, in spite of its declared readiness for a lengthy campaign. However, it is not clear if it has the ability to revalidate the rules of the game that have applied in the...
