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Israel Considers Transferring Control of Gaza’s Rafah Crossing to EU, Palestinians

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (dpa)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (dpa)
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Israel Considers Transferring Control of Gaza’s Rafah Crossing to EU, Palestinians

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (dpa)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (dpa)

Israeli authorities are considering transferring control of Gaza’s Rafah crossing to the European Union and Palestinians, informed sources said on Thursday.
Though Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has scorned the idea of Israel ceding the crossing, Israeli officials were in talks with the EU and the US about the proposal, the sources told Bloomberg.
If enacted, the proposal could foreshadow an end to the conflict between Israel and Hamas and enable more aid to get into the devastated Palestinian territory, said the sources, who asked not to be identified discussing the sensitive talks.
The negotiations underscore the EU’s renewed diplomatic efforts to relieve some pressure on Palestinian civilians and help stop the war.
The bloc has for months called for a truce but had little influence over the Israeli government as it tries to destroy Hamas.
The EU helped run the crossing before 2007, when Hamas took control over the Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu said that whatever Israel does, Hamas won’t be allowed to retake control of any border areas. His government also insists on Israel’s forces remaining in the vicinity of the crossing and along the Gaza-Egypt border.
After a visit to Rafah on Thursday, Netanyahu said it was “vital” to hold the Philadelphi Corridor and the Rafah crossing.
Last May, the Israeli army launched a military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, capturing the Rafah crossing on the Palestinian side and deploying its forces throughout the so-called Philadelphi Corridor that runs for 14 kilometers along the border with Egypt.
Earlier on Thursday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty renewed his call for Israel’s army withdrawal from the Rafah crossing and for the Palestinian Authority to run the terminal.

 

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Israel Takes Advantage of Hezbollah’s Security Gap to Carry Out Assassinations

Lebanese citizens remove the debris of the car of a leader of Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya who was targeted by Israel in eastern Lebanon. (AFP)
Lebanese citizens remove the debris of the car of a leader of Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya who was targeted by Israel in eastern Lebanon. (AFP)
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Israel Takes Advantage of Hezbollah’s Security Gap to Carry Out Assassinations

Lebanese citizens remove the debris of the car of a leader of Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya who was targeted by Israel in eastern Lebanon. (AFP)
Lebanese citizens remove the debris of the car of a leader of Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya who was targeted by Israel in eastern Lebanon. (AFP)

The ongoing Israeli assassinations of Hezbollah fighters and leaders highlight a security and technological gap that the party has been unable to address.
On Thursday morning, Israeli drones killed a leader in Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya, Mohammad Hamid Jabara from the town of Qaraoun, in a raid on the town of Gaza in the Bekaa region. Hours later, a member of Hezbollah was killed in an attack on his vehicle, shortly after he had left his mother’s house in the town of Jabal al-Butm in the South. The party mourned him in the afternoon.
Mostafa Asaad, a researcher in military and strategic affairs, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the two assassinations were part of a long series of Israeli attacks against leaders of Hezbollah, Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, and the Hamas movement, throughout southern and eastern Lebanon.
But he added that the assassinations “are not linked to a political dimension”, although their pace decreases at times and intensifies at others. They are rather “a purely military calculation”, he said.
Asaad stressed that Hezbollah has not yet been able to “stop the breaches despite the encrypted transmission devices it uses, which are mostly Iranian devices developed using Chinese, Russian and North Korean models.”
Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya, which is close to the Hamas movement, was the target of several Israeli strikes. On June 22, the Israeli army killed a member whom it said was responsible for supplying weapons to his faction and its ally, the Hamas movement. The faction had mourned nine of its members, including senior officials, since the start of the escalation.
In a statement, the Israeli army said that it killed Mohammad Jabara, who has links with the Hamas organization in Lebanon and was assigned to promote and implement terrorist plans and launch operations from Lebanon towards Israeli territory, some of which in cooperation with Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya.
In the afternoon, Hezbollah mourned Hassan Muhanna, who was targeted by an Israeli drone in the Butm Mountains. Local media reported that a drone attacked his vehicle, before he got out of the car and hid among the trees, where he was hit by another missile that killed him.
On the other hand, Hezbollah announced that it had bombed the spy equipment at the Hadab Yarin site with appropriate weapons, which led to its destruction.
The Israeli army said that it carried out a raid on Hezbollah’s military infrastructure in the Ain al-Tineh area, and another attack on two of the party’s military sites in Qusayra and Maryamin.