Writer and researcher in Israeli affairs Hassan Lafi said that the Palestinian resistance seeks through its recent operations to impose new equations in the conflict with the Israeli occupation, stressing that the latter was expecting the escalation of current events, which comes within the framework of a natural reaction to what his forces are committing against Al-Aqsa Mosque and its worshipers.
He added – in his speech to the program "Beyond the News" (2023/4/7) – that the occupation government was preparing for this escalation two months ago, through the arrests and assassinations it carried out in the West Bank, and also seeks to prevent the Gaza Strip from entering into the recent interactions through forms of containment during the past period, but the ugly image it issued through its crude attacks on pilgrims and worshipers in Al-Aqsa, it was obvious that it had a reaction.
This came against the backdrop of the killing of two settlements and the injury of a third, in an attack in the Jordan Valley, after Israeli shelling on the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon, to which Palestinian factions responded from Gaza. These developments come in light of the Israeli chief of staff's order to mobilize with a focus on air defense and aviation, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's demand that the residents of the Gaza envelope prepare for what he called imminent difficult days.
In a later development, Al Jazeera's Jerusalem correspondent Guevara al-Budairi reported that an Israeli was killed and six others were wounded in a shooting and vehicular attack on the seashore in Tel Aviv.
Lafi added, in his speech to the program "Beyond the News", that "the Israeli government aims to impose sovereignty on Al-Aqsa Mosque, and its recent escalation against the protesters in it comes in this context, and calm at the Palestinian level can only be restored if (the Israeli government) retreats from the planned major incursions on Passover and Jewish holidays."
He considered the Israeli official talk about the desire of the occupation not to escalate and be satisfied with its response "a deception and a major disinformation operation," as happened in last year's war in the Gaza Strip, when it stated that it ended its operations and then bombed what was known as the metro of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in Gaza.
The researcher in Israeli affairs believes that Israel seeks through this to have the initiative in the strike, as happened in last year's war, but going to battle at this time will be problematic for it, as it seeks to calm the situation until the end of the Israeli holidays.
However, what happened – according to Lafi – is a big blow to Israel in the Palestinian and Lebanese arenas, which makes it forced to go to a battle under the title of restoring Israel's deterrence, adding that the resistance seeks to impose new equations in the conflict with the Israeli occupation.
Pleasantly surprised!
Richard Goodstein, former US President Bill Clinton's envoy to Middle East peace negotiations, said his country is trying to convince both sides that it is in their interest to stay away from armed conflict, considering the absence of loss of life during the recent events "a pleasant surprise that should be welcomed."
He added that the message of the United States is the need to keep things as they are, but it cannot prevent either side from acting according to what it sees as self-defense, pointing out in this context that the two sides do not agree on basic aspects of the conflict between them, "There are Hamas who see the map of the Middle East without Israel, and some pillars of the Israeli government do not see Palestine in this map."
Alon Avitar, a former adviser for Arab affairs at the Israeli Defense Ministry, said that Tel Aviv's central policy is based on the "return of deterrence" and the achievement through tactical measures of a state of security stability on all fronts.
Speaking to the program "Beyond the News", he accused Hamas of being behind all the operations carried out against the occupation, which he describes as "terrorist", the latest of which was the armed attack in the Jordan Valley, in which two settlements were killed and a third was seriously injured.
Avitar claimed that Hamas' strategic goal during the past two years is to work to cause a deep and prolonged escalation in all areas except the Gaza Strip, claiming that the recent attacks by the occupation forces against the pilgrims at Al-Aqsa Mosque came as a result of the entry of hundreds of worshipers armed with pieces of iron and stones.