by Samara Greenberg GazaWATCH Palestinian Unity Palestinian Authority (PA) Prime Minister Salam Fayyad called for parliamentary elections in the West Bank despite the lack of progress in unity talks with Hamas. Hamas criticized the call, stating that elections should be the result of negotiations.
Fatah members, meanwhile, accused Hamas of being responsible for the August 5 Sinai attack in which militants killed 16 Egyptian soldiers, saying the attack was “a natural extension to what is going on in the Gaza Strip” and that Hamas has territorial ambitions in the Sinai.
Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi called for Hamas and Fatah to meet in Cairo following Ramadan’s conclusion to restart unity talks. Also, in honor of the Eid el-Fitr holiday marking the end of Ramadan, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh called PA President Mahmoud Abbas and cited his commitment to Palestinian unity, while Abbas shared a similar call with Hamas political leader Khaled Mashaal.
Security Situation in Sinai
On August 5, terrorists launched an attack near the Egyptian-Israeli border, killing 16 Egyptian security officers. The militants then seized two military vehicles and sped towards Israel’s border. Both vehicles were destroyed. Though Egypt was caught off guard, it reportedly had advanced warning of spreading extremism in the Sinai. In addition, the IDF reportedly received warning of a possible attack on the Kerem Shalom crossing two days in advance and shared the intelligence with Egypt. Egypt believes the terrorists came from Gaza and Sinai.
Following the attack, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi promised to regain control of the Sinai and root out terrorists. To that end, Egypt launched airstrikes on Sinai militants, began closing the Gaza smuggling tunnels, closed the Rafah crossing temporarily, and marched thousands of troops and heavy equipment into the Sinai. By the end of August, Egyptian forces had killed 11 militants, arrested 23 suspects, and seized weapons in what it calls “Operation Eagle.” The Egyptian military also announced that it was broadening the operation with a redeployment of forces across the Sinai. However, soon after the announcement, pan-Arab daily newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reported that the army was withdrawing its tanks from the region.
Egypt reportedly deployed tanks and other military hardware into northern Sinai for Operation Eagle without coordinating with Israel—a violation of the Camp David Accords—prompting Israel to ask Egypt to remove the tanks, The New York Times reported. Yasser Ali, Egyptian President Morsi’s spokesman, denied receiving the complaint while an Egyptian border official reportedly acknowledged that Israel had expressed its concerns.
In the post-Sinai attack crackdown, Egyptian police forces seized leaflets in the Sinai urging citizens to rebel against the Egyptian authorities.
Explosions rocked Eilat on August 15 in what was suspected to be a Grad rocket attack from the Sinai. The Salafi Front, a Sinai-based terror group, took responsibility for the attack. The group also claimed to be behind several attacks on the Egypt-Israel gas pipeline. In response to the new rocket threat from Sinai, Israel installed a new Iron Dome battery near Eilat.
Security Situation in Gaza
Following the terror attack against Sinai forces in early August, Hamas increased its border security measures with Egypt, deploying extra security personnel along the border and closing all smuggling tunnels, according to Gaza’s deputy foreign minister. Tunnels are used to bring food and other necessities into Gaza, and following the closings the price of construction materials increased. According to an official in North Sinai’s Chamber of Commerce, however, the tunnels were believed to be partially operational within a week of the attack.
The Palestinian Authority in August announced its support for “all measures carried out by the Egyptian leadership” in response to the Sinai attack, including its campaign to close down smuggling tunnels, as they harm Palestinian unity and only serve a small group of people, according to the PA. Egypt is reportedly working on destroying the tunnels, and had blocked 120 by August 25.
The Rafah crossing between Sinai and Gaza was partially reopened on August 10 following its closing in the wake of the August 5 Sinai attack, allowing 1,500 Palestinians to return to Gaza. Egypt also reopened the Rafah crossing for three days before the Eid el-Fitr holiday but imposed tight restrictions; many Gazans were denied visas by Egypt and were left stranded abroad. Egyptian airports, too, refused to allow Palestinians to enter the country during the holiday. The Rafah crossing was fully re-opened to six days a week beginning in the last week in August.
Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh called for a permanent Palestinian-Egyptian security coordination committee in the aftermath of the August 5 attack. He also denied Palestinian involvement in the attack and accused Israel of being responsible. Though the joint security committee has not been formed, Hamas and Egypt reportedly formed a joint committee to investigate the attack and began to cooperate on security matters. To that end, Hamas rounded up suspects within Gaza, including the terrorist responsible for the June death of an Israeli Arab laborer. In addition, a Hamas team traveled to Cairo to coordinate with Egypt “on all security issues”. During the meeting, the two sides reportedly created plans to preempt other similar attacks.
After coming under pressure to crack down on militants in Gaza, Hamas reportedly detained 20 Salafi jihadists and confiscated their light weaponry and homemade projectiles in order to prevent them from firing rockets into Israel.
A Gazan beauty salon at the Nusseirat refugee camp was bombed on August 15. Islamic extremists are suspected in the attack.
In a telephone call made to exchange Eid el-Fitr holiday greetings, Morsi told Haniyeh that “Egypt and Palestine are one entity.”
Living Situation in Gaza
Hamas Prime Minister in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh announced a cabinet reshuffle in the beginning of September. Seven new ministers were appointed in what Haniyeh called a “normal procedure”. He also noted that the reshuffle would allow the Gazan government to better deal with the Middle East’s changes in the wake of the Arab uprising.
The head of the International Federation of Journalists wrote to Haniyeh complaining of a campaign of intimidation against Gaza’s journalists. Indeed, according to the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms, the Fatah-Hamas divide “has led to a sharp rise in violations against journalists and media organizations in the past few years”.
In early August, Gaza police launched a campaign to crackdown on street vendors selling cigarettes to teens and prescription pills.
On August 12, an Egyptian Energy Ministry official said that fuel deliveries to Gaza were constant, would not affect Egyptian energy consumption, and were not responsible for Gaza’s recent power outages.
The Gazan Ministry of Telecommunication and Technology announced in mid-August that use of wireless telecommunication would no longer be allowed without its permission. The ministry said its decision is due to overlapping signals caused by unlicensed users of radio waves.
Turkish products are witnessing an increase in demand at markets in Gaza due to Ankara’s support of the Palestinian cause combined with the high quality of its goods offered at low prices.
Gaza’s water is becoming increasingly expensive and polluted as the infrastructure in the territory continues to deteriorate. The shortage of water has driven prices up; a recent report by British human rights organization Oxfam claims that Gazans spend up to one-third of household incomes on drinking water.
The UN released a report in August warning that Gaza’s population is set to increase by half a million people by 2020, and unless action is taken Gaza will no longer be “liveable”. In response to the report, which largely blames Israel’s blockade for Gaza’s economic problems, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor wrote a letter to the UN Security Council president highlighting that the document “failed to mention that Hamas has brutally hijacked Gaza.” The truth, he said, is “plain and simple: Hamas is responsible for the suffering in Gaza.”
According to an investigative report published in the Arab newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, the Gaza Strip is home to at least 600 millionaires, and Gaza does not face a humanitarian crisis due to the Israeli blockade. The rich reportedly made their millions on the underground tunnels between Gaza and Egypt through which goods ranging from cars to fuel to electronic appliances are smuggled into the Strip.
In August it was reported that the brother-in-law of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh received treatment at an Israeli hospital four months ago for a heart condition. Over the last few years Israel has granted an increasing number of entry permits to Palestinians in need of medical attention.
The Hamas government land authority in Gaza began leveling ground this month to be used in a potential free trade zone between Gaza and Egypt. Hamas and Egyptian officials have both raised the idea of a free-trade zone, but there has been no confirmation of its creation.
Starting in September, Hamas authorities required Internet providers in Gaza to block access to pornographic sites to protect “weak elements of society.”
Aid to Gaza
The 15th Miles of Smiles convoy arrived in the Gaza Strip on August 15 with 70 activists and medical aid for Palestinian children.
The Gulf-based Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation, in cooperation with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, contributed to a Ramadan project titled “Feed the Fasting,” providing iftar dinners to 28,386 Gazans.
In July, Israel delivered 5,325 truckloads of goods to Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing, which included food, clothes, construction materials, electric products, cooking gas, and more. In addition, 4,622 Palestinians left Gaza through Israel’s Erez crossing.
Hamas’s Violent Rhetoric
At the beginning of the month, a Hamas spokesman criticized a PA official’s visit to Auschwitz, and called the Holocaust an “alleged tragedy”.
Hamas’s Al-Aqsa TV broadcast a sermon in August by Hamas official Sheik Ahmad Bahr calling for Allah to “destroy the Jews and their supporters” and “the Americans and their supporters.”
2012 Rocket Count
During August, 21 rockets and 3 mortar shells were launched at Israel, including one rocket launched from the Sinai. In July, a total of 18 rockets and 9 mortars were launched into Israel, compared to the 197 rockets and 21 mortars that were launched in June.
In May, 4 rockets and 2 mortars were launched into Israel from the Gaza Strip. The previous month, 10 rockets were launched from Gaza. March saw 173 rockets and 35 mortars launched from Gaza. This is compared to the 36 rockets and 1 mortar shell launched at Israel in February, and the 9 rockets and 7 mortars launched in January.
JPC researchers Zachary Fisher and Kalen Taylor contributed to this report.
