While the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) constantly train and ready themselves for the possibility of a military confrontation with Hezbollah on the northern front, tension is now increasing on the southern front opposite the Gaza Strip.
Gaza is undergoing a harsh humanitarian crisis due to the discontinuation of support from Qatar and the electricity cutback affair, where Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas informed Israel the Palestinian Authority would stop paying for Gaza's electricity supply. In addition, Hamas leadership in Gaza will face an interesting challenge in the coming weeks when the IDF begins its earthworks for creating an underground barrier surrounding the Gaza Strip to prevent Hamas from digging cross-border attack tunnels.
Hamas Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar and Hamas military branch commander Mohammed al-Deif will have the whole summer to watch hundreds of heavy IDF engineering tools do underground digging surrounding the fence separating Gaza from Israel. Once this project is completed, Israel will be able to make it official and announce publically that Hamas lost its main strategic asset vis-a-vis Israel: the subterranean space, which is also the only space in which the organization can put up a real fight against the IDF, as was proved during Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014.
The Israeli Cabinet is deliberating over two conflicting evaluations of the situation. According to the first assessment, the humanitarian situation in Gaza has reached an all-time low. There is almost no electricity there, the drinking water is becoming increasingly polluted, and even going to the beach this summer will be problematic because the sea water is increasingly contaminated by an accelerated flow of sewage. Unemployment continues to be astronomically high at over 40%, Qatar is distancing itself from Hamas and Egypt is turning a cold shoulder. This reminds us of similar circumstances that led to the explosion in Gaza in the summer of 2014, only this time things are worsening with much greater intensity; it’s as if someone pressed the “turbo” button and accelerated the deterioration in fast-forward.
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