Hamas Conveys Message to Israel: We Don’t Want Escalation

Senior Hamas officials have conveyed clear messages to Israel over the past few days that the organization is not interested in escalating the situation and will work against every possibility of an outbreak of a third intifada. The message was conveyed to Israel through a third party.

But Israel takes these messages with skepticism and blames the heads of the organization for not doing what is incumbent upon them, as the ones who control the region, and failing to stop the continued rocket fire toward Israel. Furthermore, Israel says that according to all signs, Hamas is behind the unrest in the territories over the past few days, and if the heads of Hamas would want to stop the rioting and violence, they would do it. Instead, they are riling up their people, not the opposite.

Hamodia’s correspondent notes that the security cabinet, headed by the Prime Minister, convened last night for the third night in a row. This time, they made a range of decisions regarding Israeli action in the coming days in response to the murder of the three boys, but chose not to publicize most of those decisions.

Several countries appealed to Israel yesterday to exercise restraint over the kidnapping and murders, and not to launch an operation against Hamas or the Palestinians. In Yerushalayim, they believe that the countries made these appeals after being asked by Hamas senior officials, who are afraid of an Israeli operation in Gaza. Therefore, they are trying to involve international countries and personalities to prevent such an operation from being launched.

This article appeared in print on page 6 of the July 3rd, 2014 edition of Hamodia.