A Ceasefire, Israel Reopens The Border With Palestine: Avoid Conflict With Hamas?

Illustration of a fuel truck being allowed into the Gaza Strip. (Twitter/@ShehabAgency)

JAKARTA - Israel reopened border crossings into Gaza on Monday, after an Egyptian-brokered truce with Islamic Jihad ended the most serious outbreak of fighting around the volatile Palestinian enclave in more than a year.

At least 44 people, including 15 children, were killed in the 56 hours of violence that began when Israeli air strikes hit a senior Islamic Jihad commander. Israel said its action was a pre-emptive strike against an attack planned by the Iran-backed group.

Hundreds more people were injured and several houses were destroyed in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian militants fired more than 1,000 rockets into Israel, sending residents of the south and major cities including Tel Aviv fleeing to shelters.

After the battle ended, both sides sent a message of victory.

"All of our goals were achieved. All senior military commands of Islamic Jihad in Gaza were eliminated in three days," Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said in a televised statement.

Meanwhile, in a press conference broadcast on the pro-Iran station Al Mayadeen after Sunday night's ceasefire, Islamic Jihad leader Ziad al-Nakhala declared: "This is a victory."

Nevertheless, Israel saw a significant decline in Islamic Jihad's capabilities.

"There is no doubt that Islamic Jihad has taken a serious blow that will take time to recover," said an Israeli military official, pointing to the loss of two senior commanders, who he said would seriously impair his ability to plan and carry out operations.

"We are not eliminating Islamic Jihad and that is not our goal either."

In addition to the two commanders, Israeli officials said about 20 fighters were killed by the attack, and a large number of anti-tank weapons, as well as rocket production and storage facilities, were destroyed.

"I think they were surprised by our capabilities and by our level of intelligence and operational capabilities," a senior Israeli diplomatic official told reporters.

Separately, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad in Gaza said the group may have lost its leadership and fighting power, but they were able to impose conditions on Israel and maintain unity and cohesion.

"The enemy makes ending the Islamic Jihad group his goal of fighting, but such imaginary and imaginary goals fail," he said.

"We have a human element, a human marvel that can improve abilities regardless of how inferior they are," the spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, aware of the dangers of escalating the conflict, Israel is careful to focus on Islamic Jihad targets, to avoid pulling Hamas, the much larger and more powerful militant group that controls Gaza, into the battle.

More than a year on from the 11-day war in May 2021 that killed 250 Gazans and devastated the zone's fragile economy, Hamas offered some verbal support to its smaller ally but took no action against Israel as air strikes continued.

On Monday, the opening of the border crossing allowed fuel trucks to supply Gaza's only power station and increased electricity availability, which dropped to about eight hours a day.

The death toll in Gaza, the narrow coastal strip where some 2.3 million people live under the blockade from Israel and Egypt, remains heavy.

On the Israeli side, there were no serious casualties, thanks in large part to the Iron Dome air defense system, which officials say has a 96% success rate in intercepting rockets from Gaza.