Ramallah: The Israeli regime fears a the deteriorating economic conditions in Gaza will lead to a Palestinian pushback, reports in the Israeli press indicate.
“Hearing the coming war” was the main headline in the Hebrew daily, the Yediot Ahronoth, while Israel Hayom and the Times of Israel warned that the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip could lead to renewed conflict. Haaretz reported that senior Israeli political and military officials are currently working to thwart an outbreak of violence by improving what the paper described as “the catastrophic economic situation in the coastal strip”.
The Times of Israel reported a rise in suicides stemming from the dreadful economic and humanitarian situation in Gaza in which there were seven suicides and more than 20 attempted suicides over the past month. The daily warned that Gazans could pressure Hamas to attack Israel in a bid to improve the deteriorating economic situation. “It seems the humanitarian situation is so bad that the public is willing to endure another war for the small chance of breaking the blockade,” said the paper.
The paper reported that unemployment rate in the Gaza Strip has risen to 38 per cent and more than 100,000 people are still homeless in the wake of Israel’s 2014 offensive. For the time being houses get 3-4 hours of power a day as per a rationing programme the government has put in place. Gazans said that the deteriorating economic situation has led to a rise in the number of women turning to prostitution — some of them married.
The head of Israel’s Military Intelligence Directorate General Herzl Halevi told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee on Tuesday that despite efforts by Hamas to maintain clam, the deteriorating economic situation in is liable to blow up in Israel’s direction. “It is clear that economic improvement in Gaza will be the most important restraining factor,” Halevi was quoted as saying. “The situation in Gaza is deteriorating and if there won’t be improvement Israel will be the first to feel it when things explode.”
Gassan Al Khatib, a political analyst and former spokesman for the Palestinian government, said that a new war is only a matter of time.
“The entire situation in the Strip is expected to explode shortly as the Israeli tactic to create some humanitarian and economic improvements in Gaza’s daily life will surely be insufficient,” he told Gulf News.
“Israel seeks to contain the Palestinian rage, despair, and frustration caused by the deteriorating political situation and to put them under control by imposing some humanitarian and economic relieve measures,” he said.
Al Khatib said that the humanitarian and economic situation in Gaza is the worst in the world and in order to over come this reality Hamas is expected to run ahead by initiating a new war.
