As crisis in Gaza deepens, Israel weighs how to react

By Yaakov Lappin / JNS

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The ongoing economic crisis in the Gaza Strip continues to worsen and brings it with the threat of an escalation in the security situation. Funds are drying up for basic services and infrastructure for Gaza's estimated two million residents.

And a Hamas-Palestinian Authority reconciliation process, which was supposed to free up cash supplies to alleviate the situation, has stalled. [...] "I'm prepared to take a risk and say that a big crisis will not happen. We will continue to hear about the distress, but not about a humanitarian disaster that will drag all of Gaza's residents down," explained Elad.

"Everything we've heard about recently is aimed at one thing—pressuring Israel to ease the blockade on Gaza, to open its gates to Gazan workers and to forego payments of debts so that Hamas can divert its funds for bigger goals." "We don't have to rush into this" In recent days, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen.

Gadi Eisenkot presented his own assessment of Gaza, describing it as "perhaps being the most complex sector" that the military must contend with. Unemployment stands at 47 percent, he said, while residents get four hours of electricity a day. The water quality is "very low," cautioned Eisenkot.

These factors forced Hamas to seek reconciliation with the P.A., but they have also created instability. Smaller Gazan armed terror groups have increased their rocket fire on southern Israeli regions.

Although not a single Israeli civilian or soldier has been injured near the Gaza border in the past three-and-a-half years, and southern communities are flourishing, Israel absorbed more than 20 rocket attacks in the past five weeks. "We can't accept this," said Eisenkot. "There are rebellious organizations with an interest in dragging us into a Gaza conflict.

We are on high alert. We don't have to rush into this, but if we do enter [a new conflict], the IDF has the best tools."

How this transcription was made

Date and publication rest on the collector's slide label; no masthead, folio or printed dateline appears on this clipping.

Context added by this archive

Section flag on both pages reads NATION & WORLD — not a dek. Photo caption on page 6: "Armed female members of the militant Palestinian group Islamic Jihad." Credit: COURTESY. Also quoted in the story: Shlomo Brom, a former Israeli deputy national security advisor at the Institute for National Security Studies; Dr. Col. (res.)

Moshe Elad of the Western Galilee College; and Prof. Eyal Zisser. The statistics attributed to Eisenkot here — 47 percent unemployment, four hours of electricity a day, "very low" water quality — are the same February 2018 warning the Concord Monitor column (slide 4) cites two months later.

Cite this clipping

"As crisis in Gaza deepens, Israel weighs how to react," South Florida Sun Sentinel, 14 February 2018, p. page 6 and jump to page 7 (jump lines read "See Page 7" and "Continued from page 6"). Covering Palestine archive, CP-2018-031. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2018-031