Why wasn't Hamas part of the recent confrontation round?
While Hamas stayed away from the confrontation rounds against Israel, some observers believe that Hamas is not preventing the factions from getting involved in these confrontations out of fear of losing Iranian funding and because it refuses to engage in a conflict against the factions.
A second escalation round between Israel and the Palestinian factions, more particularly the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, occurred Feb. 23-24 in the Gaza Strip. This followed the Nov. 12-13 November military confrontation between the two sides that was marked by the Israeli assassination of Islamic Jihad commander Bahaa Abu al-Atta.
Although the Hamas movement did not take part in the confrontation round at the military level, it provided the involved factions with media and political support. This has prompted Israel to express satisfaction with Hamas’ conduct, and to claim that it managed to keep the movement away from the armed confrontation through its incentives. These are, namely, the monthly Qatari financial aid channeled to the Gazan poor and what implementation there has been of the 2018 understandings.
