At the end of last week, it seemed that Egyptian mediators had finally achieved a cease-fire in Gaza after convincing Israel and the Palestinian Authority to allow Qatar to transfer cash and fuel to the Strip. But on Monday and Tuesday, Hamas launched hundreds of rockets and mortars into Israel before a new cease-fire was concluded. Bassam Tawil comments:
Hamas clearly interpreted the goodwill gesture of Israel and Qatar as a sign of weakness. Hamas leaders have even gone on the record as saying that the $15 million [given by Qatar] was the “fruit” of the weekly violent riots that it has been organizing along the border with Israel since March. Shortly after the Qatari envoy delivered the funds to the Gaza Strip, the Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum used those very words. . . .
Hamas’s stance is reminiscent of its reaction to the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005. Then, Hamas and other Palestinians also interpreted the Israeli disengagement . . . as a sign of Israeli weakness and retreat.
A few months later, Hamas . . . won the 2006 Palestinian parliamentary election—largely because it claimed that it had forced Israel to pull out of the Gaza Strip by conducting suicide bombings and rocket attacks. Hamas told Palestinians back then: vote for us because we drove the Jews out of the Gaza Strip through armed struggle.
The renewed Hamas attacks on Israel serve as a reminder that the terrorist group is not interested in a real truce. Hamas wants millions of dollars paid to its employees so that it can continue to prepare for war with Israel while not having to worry about the welfare of its people. . . . [Even if] Hamas is in fact interested in a truce, it is not because it wants peace with Israel. Rather, it is because Hamas needs a “breathing space” that will allow it to continue developing and amassing weapons, and preparing for more attacks on Israel.
Read more on Gatestone: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13297/hamas-missiles-qatari-money