Israeli soldiers speak next to tanks as military armoured vehicles gather in an open area near Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip October 18, 2018. . (photo credit: REUTERS/AMIR COHEN)
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Israel ramped up its forces along the Gaza border on Friday in advance of what it feared would be renewed violent riots and the launching of incendiary devices by Palestinians near the southern security fence.
On Friday morning Israel’s police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld tweeted a photo of an officer diffusing a Palestinian launched incendiary device with the following text.
“Police bomb disposal experts responded to dangerous balloons that landed in Israel in the south from Gaza. Units patrolling civilian areas”
United Nation’s Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov on all sides to refrain from violence.
“In light of today’s planned Gaza march, I urge all to exercise restraint, to proceed in a peaceful manner, and to avoid escalation. The UN is working with Egypt and its partners to avoid violence, address all humanitarian issues and support reconciliation,” Mladenov said.
Border events are expected to have significant impact on whether or not Israel would launch a military operation against Gaza.
Israel and Hamas appeared Wednesday to be on the brink of a possible renewed Gaza war, after Palestinians in Gaza launched two powerful Grad missiles at Israel, one of which destroyed a home in Beersheba and the other reached central Israel, landing harmlessly in the sea.
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According to sources Egyptian intelligence officials who were in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday succeeded in averting a military confrontation between Israel and Hamas.
Egyptians relayed a message to Israel to the effect that the rocket attacks were not initiated by the leadership of Hamas or any major terrorist group, including Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
The two groups have denied responsibility for the launching of the rockets, but have thus far offered no details about the party responsible.
An Egyptian security team arrived in Ramallah unexpectedly on Thursday night to talk with Fatah leaders, rather than the Palestinian Authority, as part of their efforts for a long term truce that would include a reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas.
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman let it be known that if Friday passed without any violence, he would weigh reopening Israel’s two land crossings into Gaza; the pedestrian one at Erez and the commercial one at Kerem Shalom.
Israel closed those crossings, which are two of the three main arteries into Gaza, on Wednesday in response to the violence.
A late Wednesday night cabinet meeting ended without published results. It’s likely, however, that it authorized the IDF to act more forcibly against Friday’s border violence.
One of the cabinet members, Housing Minister Yoav Gallant said after the meeting, “I do not refer to the content of the cabinet discussions, but I can say one thing very explicitly – The game is about to change. We will no longer accept the fire terror.”
Hamas has insisted however that it has no plans to restrain the border violence.
On Thursday Mladenov briefed the United Nations Security Council on the Gaza situation, which he warned was “imploding.”
He added, “This is not a hyperbole. This is not alarmism. It is a reality.”
“We remain on the brink of another potentially devastating conflict, a conflict that nobody claims to want, but a conflict that needs much more than just words to be prevented,” he said.
“Let me assure this Council that, barring substantial steps to reverse the current course, this precarious sense of calm is doomed to give way under the mounting pressure.
“The gravity of the situation compels us to take decisive action,” Mladenov said.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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