Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his diplomacy-defense cabinet on Jan. 25, asking ministers to vote on transferring the third installment of Qatari grant money to the Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu did not in fact require the cabinet’s approval to make the transfer, as its members had already voted in October 2018 for the Qatari proposal to fund the pay of Palestinians employed by the Hamas government for six months. The grant was divided into six installments and the cash began to flow, much to the delight of Hamas and the chagrin of Israeli politicians who harshly attacked Netanyahu. In between the second and third installment, early elections were called in Israel and Netanyahu was worried. What would the opposition say, and would members of his ruling coalition accuse him of paying protection money to a terror organization?

The result was a decision to freeze the third tranche. Netanyahu looked for a way to transfer the money without getting his hands dirty but failed. Meanwhile, pressure was building in the Strip, which is in the throes of a deep humanitarian crisis. Hamas threatened that unless the money went through, it would ramp up the violent border demonstrations against Israel. The pressure worked. Netanyahu gave the OK but got the jitters once again after a Jan. 22 shooting from Gaza into Israel that slightly wounded an IDF officer.

Netanyahu cannot afford to be perceived as giving in to terrorism, certainly not with elections set for April 9. Hamas, under heavy pressure from within the Strip, denied responsibility for the shooting and blamed the Islamic Jihad organization for what it called “a regrettable mishap.” Hamas leaders then dialed up their threats against Israel, which responded with troop re-enforcements on the Gaza border and deployed Iron Dome anti-missile batteries.