The ostensible reason Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) fired hundreds of rockets at Israel this week was the IDF’s assassination of one of its senior commanders, Abu al-Atah—itself a response to a Palestinian rocket barrage a few days beforehand. To Michael Koplow, the killing of Atah was intended to send a direct message to Tehran:

Among those most fervently opposed to Israel applying its sovereignty to Jewish areas of the West Bank are members of the hard right, many of whom live in the affected areas. They do so because, under the Trump administration proposal, the extension of sovereignty makes possible the creation of a Palestinian state in the remainder of the territory. Haviv Rettig Gur comments on this irony: