Hamas chief tells UN he doesn’t know who fired past week’s rockets at Israel

By TOI STAFFToday, 4:18 am  

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh (3rd-R) waves upon his arrival at a rally marking the 31st anniversary of the terror group’s founding, in Gaza City December 16, 2018. (Said Khatib/AFP)

The leader of the Hamas terror group reportedly told the United Nations envoy for the Middle East on Friday that he did not know who in Gaza was responsible for this week’s rocket fire at Israel.

“No faction fired toward Israel” in the past week, Ismail Haniyeh told Nickolay Mladenov, according to the Ynet news site.

“We’re conducting an investigation to find out who fired,” Haniyeh said at the meeting in Gaza, adding that all Gaza-based factions had denied firing the projectiles at Israel.

Hamas, a terror group which seeks Israel’s destruction, did not want the unofficial ceasefire deal reached with Israel to collapse, Haniyeh said.

Mladenov promised Haniyeh that a Qatari envoy would enter the Gaza Strip with a monthly cash delivery next week. He conveyed to Haniyeh that Israel was interested in maintaining calm in the south, the report said, citing Palestinian sources.

The meeting came after a fresh surge in violence, including two nights of rocket attacks and retaliatory air force strikes, and a wave of arson balloons sent into Israel.

Several thousand Palestinians gathered along the border for weekly protests, with several hundred taking part in violent riots. Rioters threw explosive devices and rocks at troops and also tried to storm the fence in one place.

Troops responded with tear gas and live fire in some cases. The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said 46 people were wounded.

The arson balloons sparked at least seven blazes, including two large ones near Kibbutz Nahal Oz and Kibbutz Kfar Aza. Another fire raged in the Be’eri nature reserve. Firefighting teams and local residents managed to extinguish them, the fire service said.

Israeli Air Force jets carried out multiple airstrikes in the Strip early Friday, hours after a rocket hit a religious school in southern Israel. The Israeli military said in a statement that fighter jets and other aircraft attacked “several terror targets, including terror infrastructure in military compounds.”

The strikes came hours after a rocket launched from Gaza slammed into a building housing a religious school, causing damage but no injuries. The rocket, which did not explode, struck the outer face of the yeshiva, sending debris onto the sidewalk. A number of tempered-glass windows were also broken. Most students had gone home for the weekend, but several people were still inside the school at the time.

On early Thursday morning, a rocket launched from Gaza at the southern community of Nirim was intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system.

In light of the increased tensions, the Israel Defense Forces on Friday increased the deployment of its Iron Dome missile defense batteries in southern Israel.

The rocket attacks led to growing calls among politicians for a major military operation, including assassinating leaders of Hamas.

No Palestinian group has taken responsibility for the attacks, but the military generally holds Hamas responsible for any violence emanating from the enclave.

Since the last major eruption of violence in early May, Hamas has largely acted to contain violent activities at the rallies, but it was not clear whether the terror group intended to continue this policy.

Top generals in the IDF were expected to push for a much stronger response to rocket fire and arson balloons from the Gaza Strip after the attacks, Channel 12 reported Friday.

Citing a senior military source, Channel 12’s veteran military analyst Roni Daniel said Israel was “on the verge of a serious military campaign,” and said the IDF was considering ending its policy of warning occupants of buildings ahead of airstrikes, even if it causes casualties.

However, political analysts noted that it was unlikely that the government would authorize a major military campaign ahead of the elections set for September.

Tensions with Gaza have been steadily rising in recent weeks, with Israel blocking Gazan fishermen from access to the sea in response to multiple incendiary balloons being launched over the border.

Hamas has complained that Israel is not fully implementing an unofficial ceasefire deal between the sides, while Jerusalem has accused Palestinian terror groups of breaching the understandings.

The tensions have threatened to undo an unofficial ceasefire brokered after a major flareup in early May in which both sides exchanged the most intense fire in years, leading to the deaths of four Israelis and 29 Gazans.

According to Israel’s Channel 12 news, last month’s agreement includes a Hamas obligation to halt violent incidents along the border fence, maintaining a buffer zone 300 meters (roughly 1,000 feet) from the border; an end to the launching of incendiary balloons at Israeli communities and nighttime clashes between Gazans and security forces; and an end to flotillas trying to break through the maritime border between Gaza and Israel.

In return, Israel expanded the fishing zone and agreed to enable United Nations cash-for-work programs, allow medicine and other civil aid to enter the Strip, and open negotiations on matters relating to electricity, crossings, healthcare and funds.