{"id":22252,"date":"2018-11-18T04:22:16","date_gmt":"2018-11-18T04:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=22252"},"modified":"2018-11-18T04:22:16","modified_gmt":"2018-11-18T04:22:16","slug":"latest-gaza-flare-up-what-does-it-mean-for-the-blockaded-strip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=22252","title":{"rendered":"Latest Gaza flare-up: What does it mean for the blockaded strip?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nAFP JERUSALEM: A truce in Gaza has left Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu battling to keep his government afloat after Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman walked out in protest.<\/p>\n

\nHamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, welcomed Lieberman\u2019s resignation on Wednesday as a \u201cvictory\u201d \u2014 but what will it mean for Gaza?<\/p>\n

\nIsrael and Hamas have fought three wars in Gaza since 2008, interspersed with simmering hostilities and periodic spikes in violence.<\/p>\n

\nHamas refuses to recognize Israel. The Jewish state, like the US and the EU, defines Hamas as a \u201cterrorist\u201d organization. For over a decade Israel has maintained a crippling blockade on the coastal strip.<\/p>\n

\nAn apparently botched Israeli army raid into the Gaza Strip triggered the worst escalation in violence since 2014 and brought the two sides to the brink of war.<\/p>\n

\nOn Tuesday, Hamas and Israel accepted an Egyptian-mediated cease-fire. Denouncing it as \u201ccapitulation,\u201d Lieberman resigned from his post the next day, leaving the government with a majority of just one seat in Parliament.<\/p>\n

\nHamas and Islamic Jihad declared the cease-fire with military powerhouse Israel \u201ca political victory.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nIt came after Israel in October allowed Qatar to provide Gaza with fuel to help ease its chronic electricity crisis, under a UN-brokered deal.<\/p>\n

\nIn parallel, Egypt and the UN have been seeking to broker a long-term Gaza-Israel truce in exchange for Israel easing its embargo.<\/p>\n

\nThe events of the past week gave a boost to Hamas and its allies, said Gaza political analyst Mukhaimer Abu Saada. \u201cBut if there is a war that could change,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\nAfter the pounding Gaza took in 2014, most residents want above all to avoid a rerun. Indirect contacts between Israel and Hamas have eroded the status of the Palestinian Authority (PA).<\/p>\n

\nA peace initiative by US President Donald Trump is expected to emerge in the next few months. The PA fears that it will drive the wedge even deeper between Gaza the West Bank, two territories long envisaged as part of a unified Palestinian state.<\/p>\n

\nJamal Al-Fadi, a professor of political science in Gaza, says such a divide suits Israel. \u201cWe can not have results against Israel except by unity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\nThis cease-fire, like others before it, is fragile and could easily be derailed.<\/p>\n

\nWith the Israeli political tensions unleashed by Lieberman\u2019s departure, there will be fresh domestic pressure on Netanyahu to hit Hamas harder.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe coming days will be difficult\u201d for Gaza, Al-Fadi said.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIt was a right-wing government and the (next) elections will bring another right-wing government,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cUnfortunately aggression against the Palestinian people will continue.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AFP JERUSALEM: A truce in Gaza has left Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu battling to keep his government afloat after Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman walked out in protest. Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, welcomed Lieberman\u2019s resignation on Wednesday as a \u201cvictory\u201d \u2014 but what will it mean for Gaza? Israel and Hamas have fought…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":22253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}