Islamic Jihad’s challenge to Hamas in Gaza
▻https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/indepth/2018/8/31/islamic-jihad-vs-hamas-in-gaza
While Hamas has become synonymous with the Gaza Strip in the years since its 2006 election victory and subsequent routing of rival Fatah from the coastal enclave in internecine fighting a year later, one of Hamas’ lesser-known peers has largely escaped notice amid clashes between Hamas and Israel.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad, or PIJ, shares with Hamas the fundamental objective of fighting Israel. PIJ, however, has felt freer to launch attacks responding to Israel’s ongoing blockade because, unlike Hamas, PIJ has no role in governing Gaza or rebuilding it in the event of the all-but-guaranteed Israeli counterattacks.
As tensions between Hamas and Israel increase, PIJ may prove the wildcard that triggers yet another war in Gaza.
At first glance, PIJ would appear a sideshow to Hamas. PIJ has only a few thousand fighters, compared with the tens of thousands in the Hamas ranks, and much of PIJ’s arsenal comprises cheap, simple rockets. Even so, these limitations have rarely prevented PIJ from striking Israel over the past two decades. In 2002, a PIJ car bomb in the Israeli city of Afula killed seventeen and injured thirty-eight. In 2012, PIJ rockets reached as far as Tel Aviv, Israel’s second-largest city and the heart of its economy.
In fact, PIJ’s smaller size may allow it to act without attracting the public scrutiny that greets Hamas attacks on Israel.
“Since Hamas is the primary ’culprit’ - in the eyes of Israel - there is less attention, media and otherwise, on PIJ and PIJ might feel more free to initiate a conflict,” Mia Swart, a nonresident fellow at the Brookings Doha Center, told The New Arab.