In the past few days, balloon-borne explosives and incendiary devices have landed near Israeli villages adjacent to the Gaza Strip. The launching of such missiles from Gaza was commonplace earlier this year, then ceased for several months, and began again in the past few days. David May and Joe Truzman describe one of the groups behind these attacks:
Humat al-Aqsa (HAA), or the Defenders of al-Aqsa, [is a] small but violent organization [and] a proxy of the Hamas terrorist group. . . . HAA is not yet sanctioned by the U.S. government, but it should be. . . . By employing [it] as a proxy, Hamas can carry out terrorist attacks while maintaining plausible deniability, [part of its effort] to rebrand itself as a pragmatic, moderate force despite its oppressive rule in the Gaza Strip and its commitment to destroying Israel. HAA lets Hamas pursue its [murderous] aspirations without being held to account.
No one should be fooled by Hamas’s ruse, however.
HAA is [also] operating out of civilian areas. This effectively turns nearby Palestinians into human shields. The use of human shields is a war crime and is sanctionable pursuant to the Sanctioning the Use of Civilians as Defenseless Shields Act of 2018.
Part of what distinguishes HAA’s novelty is its brazenness; it is the only Palestinian group known to have used its emblem on a video taking credit for launching explosive balloons at Israel. HAA doesn’t only threaten America’s ally Israel, it threatens the United States and its interests. Many American expatriates live near the Gaza border. In November 2019, a Washington, DC-based law firm filed a lawsuit on behalf of American citizens harmed by rockets, mortars, and incendiary devices launched from Gaza. And American vessels often dock at the port of Ashdod, less than twenty miles from the border with Gaza.
Read more on National Interest: https://nationalinterest.org/blog/middle-east-watch/trump-must-hold-hamas-terror-proxies-accountable-162643