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Will Hamas Risk an Escalation?

(Ynet News) Ron Ben-Yishai - Hamas leaders have begun to understand that the IDF has finally developed a way to locate the attack tunnels that they dug underneath the border from Gaza into Israel. The IDF is undertaking intensive and accelerated operations and has already discovered at least two tunnels. Hamas leaders found themselves with a severe dilemma: Do they act immediately via their tunnels before they lose their main strategic asset? Or do they refrain from operations for now and search for other methods to surprise Israel in the next round? The military wing of Hamas still isn't ready for another round of fighting with Israel on the scale of the summer 2014 war. Moreover, with the damage of that war not yet repaired, Hamas fears a major confrontation with Israel at the present time might trigger a popular uprising against it. The continued mortar fire is Hamas' way of sending a message to Israel: If you keep looking for our tunnels, a war will break out. Yet the IDF hasn't slowed down its tunnel detection efforts for a moment. With the permission of the prime minister, the defense minister and the cabinet, the operations have been increased, the forces strengthened, and detection efforts heightened.
2016-05-06 00:00:00
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