Hamas announces: No Gaza border protests this Friday - report
This would be the first that Hamas cancels the protests since March 2019, over 6 months ago.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFPalestinians riot in front of the Bureij refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip. IDF troops use tear gas in an attempt to deter them from getting close to the fence. Gaza envelope, Aug 2, 2019(photo credit: KOBI RICHTER/TPS)
Hamas announced on Thursday that there will not be 'March of Return' this Friday, according to a Channel 13 report. This would be the first time that the protests are cancelled since March 2109, over half a year ago.According to the report, the Hamas announcement came in an attempt to deescalate the situation following over 400 rockets that were launched at Israel by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad as a response to IDF operation 'Black Belt' that killed PIJ commander Bahaa Abu al-Ata.The weekly protests along the Israel-Gaza border began on March 30, 2018, they were planned to be a six-week campaign to demand that Israel allow Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return to their former homes in Israel. That’s why the organizers, mostly social media activists, chose to call the protests the “Great March of Return.”It appeared on Thursday morning that both the UN and Egypt had secured a restoration of calm, after two days of fighting between the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza and the IDF."#Egypt and the #UN worked hard to prevent the most dangerous escalation in and around #Gaza from leading to #war. The coming hours and days will be critical. ALL must show maximum restraint and do their part to prevent bloodshed. The #MiddleEast does not need more wars,” UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov tweeted on Thursday morning.Hamas’ failure to join the round of fighting between Israel and PIJ was one of the main reasons why PIJ agreed to the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire, Palestinians said on Thursday.Sources close to Hamas explained that the movement chose not to involve itself in the fighting out of fear of dragging the Gaza Strip into an all-out war with Israel.“The residents of the Gaza Strip can’t afford another major war like the one that took place in 2014,” the sources said, referring to the seven-week Operation Protective Edge military offensive after Hamas fired rockets into Israel.According to the sources, Hamas did not believe that the assassination of al-Ata was sufficient to spark another war with Israel. “As far as Hamas was concerned, this was an internal issue concerning Palestinian Islamic Jihad,” the sources explained. “While Hamas did not try to stop the group from avenging the death of its commander, it saw no reason why its men should join the rocket attacks on Israel.”
