Four days after the launch of Operation "Shield and Arrow" on the Gaza Strip by the Israeli army, it was difficult to foresee, Friday night, a way out of the crisis.
At the end of the morning, after 13 hours of calm, the macabre ballet that has been playing since the beginning of the week resumed when Islamic Jihad launched a new salvo of rockets towards Israel. On Israeli mobile phones, the application announcing bomb threats then started ringing again at a steady pace. Israel then announced the cessation of ceasefire negotiations, which were taking place under the auspices of Egypt. Soon after, a new salvo of rockets was fired at towns on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Then Israeli planes carried out several bombings in the Gaza Strip. And sirens have sounded again in the cities of southern Israel, forcing the population once again to seek refuge in shelters.
On both sides, the war is also fought in the field of communication. In a document released Friday morning by the Israeli army, it was learned that 866 rockets had been fired from the Gaza Strip since Tuesday. Of the 672 who entered Israel, 260 were intercepted by Israel's "Iron Dome," Israel's anti-missile system. The other 194 rockets fell in the Gaza Strip. The missile rain left one dead and 16 injured on the Israeli side. On the Palestinian side, a graph published late Friday morning by the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, announced 31 dead, including 6 children and 3 women, as well as 106 wounded, including 36 children and 21 women. Photos of the "martyrs", their relatives, their funerals, as well as impressive images of the Israeli bombings are circulating on social networks.
Striking Islamic Jihad
This new cycle of violence actually began in early May. After the death in an Israeli prison, following a hunger strike, of one of its members, Islamic Jihad launched a hundred rockets into Israel. The Israeli army then carried out air strikes on the Gaza Strip, killing one Palestinian side. In the view of observers, both Israeli and Palestinian, this chapter was closed.
But this time the Israeli army seemed determined to strike a blow at Islamic Jihad, presented since the beginning of the clashes as its only adversary. Since the beginning of the operation on Tuesday, the army has announced the death of many of the movement's cadres, with its spokesmen repeatedly saying that Hamas, the Islamist movement that has de facto ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007, was not its adversary in the operation. Early Friday afternoon, the army slightly changed its message, saying, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, that the targeted strikes against Islamic Jihad cadres in Gaza were also a message to other organizations threatening Israel.
For the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, the situation is becoming complicated because, in addition to the danger, the bombings being carried out in one of the most densely populated areas of the planet, it is the spectre of scarcity that is emerging. The Erez checkpoint, the entry and exit point to Israel, has been closed since Tuesday, as has the Rafah checkpoint, which provides access to Egypt. Nothing enters the Gaza Strip, nothing leaves. The 18,000 residents who spend every day in Israel to work — a much-needed financial windfall — are stuck, and Hamas announced early Friday afternoon that there was only 72 hours left at the single thermal power plant. The population, which receives electricity for about four hours a day, is already preparing for the blackout.
In Israel, Operation Shield and Arrow is making headlines. On Friday, the centrist-leaning Marrive newspaper reported that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who has been struggling in the polls for several weeks, had gained a few points since the beginning of the week.