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Israel Allows Hamas to Sit on the Fence in Gaza

May 15, 2023
Lazar Berman
The Times of Israel

Published originally under the title "Hamas, Undeterred, Sat On The Sidelines as Islamic Jihad and Israel Slugged It Out."

Ahnaf Kalam

Excerpt

For the third time since Operation Black Belt in 2019, Hamas sat out a fight between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Though it maintained a “Joint Operations Room” with other groups and put out a statement with Islamic Jihad about resistance, the Gaza-ruling terror group seemed to be content watching from the sidelines and letting the smaller organization bear the brunt of Israeli strikes during the five days of conflict that ended Saturday night.

The Netanyahu government sought to portray the terrorist group’s inaction as evidence of helplessness. Hamas used to dictate everything that happened in the Gaza Strip, one senior Israeli official said on Saturday; now it can’t even control the much smaller Islamic Jihad.

Read the full article at the Times of Israel.

Lazar Berman is the Times of Israel‘s diplomatic reporter and a Middle East Forum Writing Fellow.

Israel & Zionism Hamas
Lazar Berman
Lazar Berman
Lazar Berman is the Diplomatic Correspondent at yhe Times of Israel, where he also covers Christian Affairs. He holds an M.A. in Security Studies from Georgetown University and taught at Salahuddin University in Iraqi Kurdistan. Berman is a reserve captain in the IDF’s Commando Brigade and served in a Bedouin unit during his active service.
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