Israeli Security Cabinet Holds Marathon Session Amid Gaza Tensions

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday evening convened a five-hour meeting of his security cabinet, as Israel mulls launching a military campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. It comes after the Israeli leader along with Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman met with top military brass from the Israel Defense Forces’ Gaza Division. Tensions erupted earlier in the day when a rocket fired from the Palestinian enclave demolished a house in the southern city of Beersheba, to which the Israeli army responded by striking 20 Hamas terror targets. In what is being construed as a bad omen, Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamal, who has been mediating efforts to achieve a long-term cease-fire, canceled his planned visit to Gaza City and Ramallah; this, as a delegation already in Gaza returned to Cairo. Israel has reinforced its troops along the border, which has been rocked by weekly violent “March of Return” protests for six months. Israel is, to a degree, stuck between a rock and hard a place, not wanting either to launch a full-scale invasion to overthrow Hamas—which likely would necessitate the re-occupation of Gaza—or significantly ease the blockade, a move that effectively would empower the terrorist regime. As such, there is growing discussion of a partial ground incursion, coupled with aerial strikes, to make Hamas pay a medium-sized price without the Jewish state getting enmeshed (although the risk exists) in another protracted conflagration, as was the case for 50 days in 2014. For its part, Hamas denied responsibility for Wednesday’s missile attack, but overnight vowed to “quickly and immediately” respond to any Israeli “aggression.”