Israel launches Operation Solid Rock against Hamas (updated)

Among the targets attacked and destroyed by Israel Air Force (IAF) Monday night and Tuesday night were the homes of:

• Ra’ad Atar, commander of Hamas’ Rafah Brigade
• Muhammad Sinwar, commander of Hamas Khan Yunis Brigade
• Iad Sakhik, a top Hamas operative who participated in rocket and mortar fire
• Abdallah Hashash, a Hamas operative from Rafah involved in recent rocket fire
• Samer Abu Daka, top Hamas member in Khan Yunis involved in terror activity
• Hassan Abdallah, top Hamas operative also involved in recent rocket fire
• Haled Mantsur, a senior commander in Hamas’ military wing

IAF strikes have also killed several military operatives of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, among them:

• Rashad Yassin, a member of the Izz a-Din al-Qassam, Hamas’s military arm, who was in the Nuseirat refugee camp when he was hit
• Hafez Hamad, leader of Al Quds Battalions, the military arm of the Islamic Jihad, who was killed in his home with five of his family members
• Muhammad Shaeban, a commander in Hamas maritime wing
• Abdalla Defalla, who was in charge of Isamic Jihad’s rocket launches in the Beit Hanun area

In all, thirty-five Palestinians have so far been killed.

“We are killing terrorists of different ranks, and this operation will persist and intensify,” Israel Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon sayid. “For our part, this doesn’t have to be a short battle. We will continue hitting Hamas and other terrorist groups hard.” 

Hamas acknowledged that in these attacks Israel has followed its policy of calling the homes targeted for attack to alert the residents and give them about fifteen minutes to leave for safety (see (see “Israel warns Gaza targets by phone and leaflet, New York Times, 8 July 2014).

Hamas is urging Gaza residents to stay in their homes, and even stand on the roofs, to serve as human shields — but these calls apply only to regular Gazans. Family members of Hamas leaders typically rush to vacate their home to escape injury. The wife and two children of Ouda Quera, the commander of Izz a-Din al-Qassam brigades, decided to return to their home after leaving it, and were killed in subsequent the air strike.

Hamas has also sent four militants by a boat to land on a beach north of Gaza Strip and attack residents of kibbutz Zikim with machine guns and hand grenades. Israeli maritime surveillance spotted the boat when it left Gaza, and Israeli forces ambushed them on the beach north of Gaza Strip and killed them after a short firefight.

It appears that this failed attack was an attempt by Hamas to avenge the killing by Israel last night of the commander of Hamas’s small maritime force.

It is unclear how far Hamas and Israel would go in escalating the current round.

Hamas has found itself in a tight spot this past year. The organization had only two supporters in the Arab world — Egypt under the Muslim Brotherhood and Qatar, the small petro-sheikdom which, in order to irk its big neighbor Saudi Arabia, has supported jihadist groups and fundamentalist Islamists around the Arab world with hundreds of dollars. The Muslim Brotherhood was removed from office in July 2013, and the Egyptian government has declared Hamas a terrorist organization.

Israel, which controls transfer of money to the Gaza Strip, has prevented Qatar from transferring funds to Hamas. In addition, although Hamas and the Palestinian Authority two months ago signed a unity government agreement, the PA has refused to pay the salaries of civil servants in Gaza, accelerating and deepening the economic crisis.

What complicates the situation is that the Hamas political leadership appears not to be in contact with the military wing of Hamas – and both the political and military wings of Hamas exert only limited control over even more extremist groups such as Islamic Jihad.

Hamas, a fundamentalist Sunni movement, is also hampered by the fact that the successes of the Islamist ISIS groups in Syria and Iraq has increased concerns in the Arab world – and the West – about Islamist militants generally. One indication of this rising concern, and the consequent decline in support for Hamas across the Arab world, is the unprecedented situation in which not a single Arab government has raised its voice against the Israeli action against Hamas, or I n support of Hamas missile launches at Israel.

It remains to be seen how long this Arab reticence will go on, but Hamas’s growing isolation in the Arab world cannot be ignored.

Israel also finds itself in a delicate spot. Any meaningful military action against Hamas would have to involve a land invasion of the Gaza Strip, an action which will not only cost the lives of soldiers, but will also likely be met with Hamas rocket launches at Tel Aviv and other cities in central Israel.

Hamas has about 400 rockets which can reach central Israel.

Earlier today, Hamas one of these rockets at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport, but the rocket was intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system.