After cease-fire, Israel prepares for next round of Gaza conflict

Even wars have their comic moments. Israel’s Operation Guardian of the Walls ended last week on such a note when Tzachi Hanegbi, a member of the ministerial security Cabinet, declared to the press he was optimistic that Hamas would not dare attack Israel for the next 15 years.

The Israel-Hamas cease-fire went into effect at 2 a.m. on May 21. Three days later, on May 23, several balloons launched from the Gaza Strip landed in Israeli fields with pictures of Hamas shahids. Thus, it seems that the countdown toward the next military clash had begun. Apparently, no one in the military or government in Israel is under any illusion regarding the future.

During the 11-day fighting, the head of military operations, Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva, hinted at a change in Israel’s future policy on the periodic Hamas rocket attacks against Israel, but the nature of the change in the rules of the game remains unclear. Haliva told the press, “I didn’t assess that Hamas would fire rockets at Jerusalem. But the big mistake was Hamas’s. It has paid a price for it, and will continue to pay a price for it.”

Israel initially thought that Hamas’ military chief Mohammed al-Deif, who broke years of silence recently to issue threats against Israel, was behind the decision to strike. In hindsight, it now appears that Yahya Sinwar, the organization’s Gaza chief, was the prime motivator. “He [Sinwar] underwent a very abrupt change,” a top Israeli security source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, attributing it to the traumatic experience of nearly losing the March elections for the organization’s Gaza leadership. The source described how Sinwar went “almost overnight” from being a responsible leader negotiating with Israel to achieve a better life for his people by providing them with electricity, jobs and schools, to a “modern-day version of Salah ad-Din.”