Ceasefire or reloading? Spent Rockets fired from Gaza. Illustrative. By Joshua Spurlock.
Hamas is well on their way to the next round in the fight with Israel, but at the same time leaders are reportedly exploring a possible multiple-year ceasefire with Israel. According to the Ma’an News Agency, the Hamas military wing announced on their website that it has rebuilt multiple military bases near the security fence separating Gaza and Israel, claiming that once the last fight with Israel ended over the summer they “started a new stage of the conflict in preparation for the battle of liberation.”
Meanwhile, commentator Akiva Eldar for Al Monitor, citing a report from Avi Issacharoff on the Walla website, said Hamas leaders are looking into swapping a long-term ceasefire with Israel in exchnage for Israel lifting the Gaza blockade. Israel and Egypt maintain a range of anti-smuggling efforts on Gaza in an effort to prevent terror groups there from acquiring weapons.
The report of this proposal came earlier this month, days before Ma’an reported that Hamas boasted they are working to make their training locations large enough to meet “all” their training needs.
The mixed messages coming from Hamas are nothing new. Eldar, in Al Monitor, notes that the military wing of Hamas has foiled plans for calm with Israel before. In light of that, he argued that any serious arrangement with Hamas should not come without Hamas taking apart the war machine they have developed in Gaza.
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, March 15, 2015)