Israel’s 2005 unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip spotlights the dangers of Israel giving up strategic territory to the Palestinians, contended Breitbart Jerusalem bureau chief Aaron Klein.
In a panel discussion on Israel’s i24NEWS (video above) about the most recent escalation from Gaza, Klein pointed out that Monday marks the 13-year anniversary of the start of Israel’s Gaza evacuation, according to the Hebrew calendar.
Stated Klein: “In the next few days Israel is going to be commemorating the 13th anniversary according to the Hebrew date of Israel’s evacuation of Gush Katif, the Jewish communities of Gaza. And now we have Hamas not only taking over but firing rockets into Israel. So this is a very good example of what happens when Israel gives up strategic territory to an enemy that announces that they are going to use that territory to attack the Jewish state.”
Thirteen years ago, Israel uprooted the Jewish communities that comprised Gush Katif, the slate of Israeli neighborhoods inside the Gaza Strip. Hamas has since taken over the coastal enclave and has used the territory to stage two wars and repeated terrorist attacks against Israel.
Last weekend, Gazan terrorist groups fired more than 200 projectiles from Gaza aimed at Israeli civilian population zones, injuring four family members in the nearby town of Sderot when a rocket landed outside their home. Another terror rocket struck near a synagogue there. It was the largest volley of terror rockets and mortars since the 2014 Israel-Gaza War.
Klein pointed to the timing of Hamas’s escalation, which he explained came just prior to President Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, where the two leaders discussed Iran’s military presence in Syria. Klein said he believes the rocket attacks were an attempt by Iran to utilize its Palestinian terrorist proxies in Gaza to impact the talks about countering Iran in Syria.
Klein stated:
We have to look at what happened in the last few days in that Hamas I don’t think has a strategic interest to fire over 200 projectiles into Israel. They have to know that they are going to be massively retaliated against. And so I think this very clearly shows that Hamas is doing the bidding of Iran. All of the sudden, Hamas escalates a rocket war just as Russia and the United States is about to talk about Iran’s presence in Syria? Of course they are connected. And I think this is part of why Israel at the end of the day also on Sunday struck a military base in Syria. To send that signal. So they can continue to close crossings or negotiate ceasefires but Hamas seems to have sold out to Iran.