The escalation between Israel and Hamas: What’s new and what’s not
LOD, ISRAEL - MAY 12, 2021: Cars burned during clashes between Israeli Arabs and Jewish residents in the city of Lod; a state of emergency was declared in Lod on May 11. Andrei Shirokov/TASS.No use Russia.
The current escalation between Israel and the Gaza-based Hamas and Islamic Jihad factions was not generated in a vacuum. While the intensity of the fighting appears to have caught some veteranpractitioners of Middle East conflict and diplomacy by surprise, a trail of discernable factors led to this fraught outcome.
April witnessed repeated clashes near Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate, where Israeli police took measures to prevent Palestinians from congregating after evening prayers during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. The restrictions, which were implemented ostensibly to preclude an outbreak of violence, had the opposite result. A clip uploaded that month to TikTok with Palestinian teenagers filming thems
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Israel’s upcoming election: A referendum on the handling of the coronavirus
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a visit to Leumit Health Care Services vaccination facility in Jerusalem where he meets the 4,000,000 person who had been vaccinated in Israel, February 16, 2021. Alex Kolomoisky/Pool via REUTERS
March 23 will see Israelis trek to the polls for the fourth time since April 2019 after the close of an election campaign that has, thus far, entertained discussion of little else other than the coronavirus and its ramifications.
COVID-19 has earned singular status as a potential game-changer in Israeli political life. In a recent Israel Democracy Institute survey, only 24 percent of Israelis awarded a positive score to the incumbent government’s handling of the public health crisis, voicing even lesser approval for its measures to mitigate economic and social fallout from the pandemic. These numbers contrast markedly with the 57 percent and 48 percent of