A low-intensity war has been going on this week between Israel and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. During the past 4 days over 50 Kassam rockets, several mortar rounds and at least one anti-tank missile have been aimed at the Jewish state. Many of them have fallen on civilian areas sending several people to the hospital. Some greenhouses were damaged by others. In addition, several IDF (Israeli Defense Force) units came under fire from the other side of the border.

It all started on Tuesday night when a special IDF unit entered the Gaza Strip to destroy a tunnel that was detected emanating from a civilian house about 245 meters from the border and running under it into Israeli territory. The Israelis feared that it was going to be used for future kidnapping operations and decided to put an end to it before it became operational. In the ensuing battle, the Palestinians blew up the house themselves, and one Palestinian was killed and seven Israelis wounded.

Since that first night, the Palestinians have maintained a constant but low-intensity bombardment of the Jewish state that has continued up to the moment of the writing of this article. Israeli authorities are coming under increasing criticism by their own people for not doing enough to either prevent these bombardments or retaliate against them. Jerusalem is trying very hard to keep the ceasefire with Hamas in force and is responding with the minimum amount of force necessary to deal with these attacks. It is a political-diplomatic decision that is scoring a few points internationally, but is costing the government a lot at home.

How much patience the Israeli government will have in the face of continuing attacks no one knows. However, the Palestinians surely realize that they are coming close to a red line that will provoke a violent reaction. Perhaps that is part of their evolving plan.

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