Monday, May 15, 2023

Hamas, undeterred, sat on the sidelines as Islamic Jihad and Israel slugged it out

For the third time since Operation Black Belt in 2019, Hamas sat out a fight between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Though it maintained a “Joint Operations Room” with other groups and put out a statement with Islamic Jihad about resistance, the Gaza-ruling terror group seemed to be content watching from the sidelines and letting the smaller organization bear the brunt of Israeli strikes.

The Netanyahu government sought to portray the terrorist group’s inaction as evidence of helplessness. Hamas used to dictate everything that happened in the Gaza Strip, one senior Israeli official said on Saturday; now it can’t even control the much smaller Islamic Jihad. READ MORE