Hamas members fear that a military escalation is on the horizon thanks to the financial crisis in the Gaza Strip brought on in part by the Palestinian Authority’s freeze on payments to thousands of its employees in Gaza and Israel’s cessation of electricity payments on behalf of the Gaza Strip.
A source in Hamas told Breitbart Jerusalem that the group’s military and political branches have ordered their members to prevent and avoid any step that could lead to military conflict with Israel. According to the source, the orders from Hamas’ leadership to the movement’s members were given despite public threats from its leaders against Israel.
The source noted that Hamas’s top leadership rejected the recommendation of the group’s military leaders to begin measured escalation against Israel in order to use the international community or at least the Arab countries to put pressure on the Palestinian Authority to renew payments to their employees in Gaza.
The source admitted that Hamas’ position is also due to the fact that it wants to prevent a conflict that will exact a heavy price from the group and the residents of Gaza while the enclave has yet to fully recover from the last war in 2014.
The source added that Hamas sent messages in a similar spirit to Egypt and said the movement has no intention of escalating the situation with Israel.