Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman recently received another lesson on how complex the situation in Gaza actually is. Although he has been prone to declare that he is in favor of toppling the Hamas regime or assassinating its leader, he now realizes that any attempt to resolve the problem of Hamas with a single blow is not only destined to fail, but would actually exacerbate the situation for Israel.
A Qassam rocket fired from Gaza at the town of Sderot on Oct. 5 landed near a school in the city center. The blast caused damage to some houses and cars and terrified local residents. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) responded with restraint. Artillery shells were fired at open areas in Gaza, and the air force conducted minimal bombing runs just to fulfill its duty to respond. Prior to that, a rocket had been fired at Sderot, on Aug. 21, two and a half months after Liberman assumed the post of defense minister, and in response, the IDF attacked dozens of targets associated with Hamas and Islamic Jihad. At the time, senior defense officials called it the air force’s most extensive response in Gaza since Operation Protective Edge in 2014.
In both cases, the group that took responsibility for the rockets was Aknaf Bayt al-Maqdis (Outskirts of the [al-Aqsa] Temple), a Salafi organization that has sworn allegiance to the Islamic State (IS). In Gaza, the group is considered a rebel faction whose members are not intimidated by Hamas and are always putting the ruling party to the test. The October rocket fire followed a wave of arrests of the group’s activists by Hamas.
The only way the Salafists can harm Hamas and create a balance of terror against it is to cause trouble between Hamas and Israel by firing rockets to escalate tensions. It is like a game of cat and mouse, and it just happened again. Salafists fired rockets at Israel, the IDF attacked Hamas and Hamas took action against the Salafists. This time, however, the IDF’s response was much more restrained than it had been in August. What this shows is that Israel understands that the situation is a trap and that the key to quiet — that is, keeping Hamas in power in Gaza — lies in the hands of these Salafi groups. If they really wanted to, these IS allies could set the region on fire, causing enough problems for Hamas that it could actually lead to the movement's downfall.
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