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Change in balance of power between Hamas, Israel

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Only a mirage [By Jiao Haiyang/China.org.cn]

Eight days of fighting between the Islamic Hamas movement and Israel in the Gaza Strip ended up Wednesday with a ceasefire, which for the first time has changed the balance of power between the two sides following Arab and international diplomatic efforts, analysts said.

Israel began its air operation "Cloud Pillar" on Nov. 14, when it targeted Hamas' armed wing commander Ahmed al-Ja'bari in Gaza. Hamas and other militants fired more than 3,000 projectiles and rockets with some of them hitting Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

The Palestinian rockets killed six Israelis in eight days, while Israeli war jets carried out more than 1,500 airstrikes on various targets, including Hamas' infrastructure and properties of its militants.

Israel's attacks killed nearly 170 Palestinians and wounded some 1,200 others, more than half of them were civilians.

As the Egypt-brokered ceasefire agreement came into effect Wednesday night, both Israelis and Palestinians expressed satisfaction that the war was over. Hamas announced that it achieved victory in this battle, while Israel said it had made many achievements.

Aluf Ben, an Israeli writer specialized in Palestinian affairs, told the Israeli Haaretz daily that it was hard to say that Hamas achieved a victory.

"Israel had two strategic goals; first is to renew the fragile ceasefire with Hamas, and to revive the peace agreements signed with Egypt in 1979," he said.

"Israel succeeded in both goals and wants Hamas to have a role, similar to the role of Hezbollah in Lebanon, to restore calm and ceasefire for a long term of time, and at the same time enforce the ceasefire on other minor militant groups," Ben said, adding that Hamas was the one which began the war.

Just one day before al-Ja'bari's assassination, Hamas militants attacked an Israeli army jeep with an anti-tank missile and seriously wounded several soldiers, he said.

Ben said Israel also aimed at checking out its ties with the new Egyptian leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood Movement.

However, senior Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar held a different opinion, saying: "Israel hasn't achieved anything in this battle except killing women and children."

Hamas' "choice of resistance has won and Israel was defeated and will be defeated," he said. "Every war Israel wages on us empowers us instead of weakening us. We gain more support and we earn more weapons and prepare for the next battle."

Hamas used new tactics in this war for the first time, when rockets were automatically fired with scheduled timing.

Mekhemer Abu Se'da, a political science professor at the Gaza-based al-Azhar University, said the battle could not be calculated on the basis of a winner or a looser, adding that "the Palestinians had for the first time a power that defeated Israel and caused severe damages."

"What the armed resistance in the Gaza Strip had achieved has created a new position in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians," he said. "Whatever Israel says, it will think twice before waging another war on the Gaza Strip in the future."

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