This is not just another normal round of confrontation between the Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip and Israel — at least this is what Hamas believes. The group’s representative in Tehran told Al-Monitor in an exclusive interview that, this time, his group along with other Palestinian factions “applied a strategic shift in the concept of resistance, from defending Gaza against Israeli attacks to defending all Palestinians living in historical Palestine.”

Khaled al-Qaddumi told Al-Monitor that another strategic change is that “the resistance will not allow Israeli occupation forces to attack civilian targets in al-Quds [Jerusalem].”

On May 6, tensions escalated when Israeli Police stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, using stun grenades and rubber bullets against Palestinians protesting over the forced displacements of four Arab families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem. Protests erupted in different cities inside Israel, reflecting a change in the tools Arabs are using to defend their rights. Prior to that, on May 4, the general commander of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, warned that his group “will not stand idly by in the face of attacks on the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.”

He continued, “[Israel] will pay a heavy price if the aggression against our people in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood does not stop immediately.”