GAZA CITY: Egyptian mediators entered Gaza on Monday seeking to calm tensions after a week of clashes in which Israel has launched military strikes in response to airborne incendiary devices that have ignited wildfires.

Israel has targeted positions of Hamas, which it holds responsible for all cross-border attacks from the coastal enclave.

The delegation from Egypt, which has traditionally played the role of mediator in the restive Palestinian enclave, entered Gaza at around midday local time, according to security sources and eyewitnesses who spoke to AFP.

Israeli tanks pounded Hamas targets earlier Monday in what has become a daily response to Palestinian rockets, firebombs that are carried by bunches of balloons into southern Israel, and more recently to clashes on the border.

Israel has said that since August 6, fire-scene investigators have identified 149 blazes in southern Israel caused by incendiary balloons floating across from Gaza.

The army also reported violent protests on Saturday, as “rioters burned tyres, hurled explosive devices and grenades towards the security fence and attempted to approach it”.

There were more frontier riots on Sunday, the army said.

Israel has also closed the Kerem Shalom goods crossing to Gaza and shut the strip’s fishing zone.

With fuel imports blocked, Gaza’s electricity authority announced that more service cuts would be implemented from Monday, adding to frustrations for Gazans who already endure irregular power supply.

Hamas and Israel have fought three wars since 2008, but an uneasy truce brokered last year by the United Nations and Egypt helped curb the violence.

The informal truce between Israel and Hamas also includes provisions on developing Gaza’s economy and curbing rampant unemployment.

A source familiar with Israel-Hamas affairs, who requested anonymity, told AFP that there “seems to be a block” on these other issues and that Hamas wants to see progress.

Palestinian anger has flared further since Israel and the UAE last Thursday agreed to normalize relations, a move many Palestinians saw as a betrayal of their cause by the Gulf country.

Despite anger on the streets of Gaza following the deal’s announcement, Saada said Hamas was not looking to make trouble over the pact.

“Hamas knows the agreement could not have happened without the blessing of (UAE allies) Saudi Arabia and Egypt,” the professor said.

“And Hamas is not interested in having a strained relationship with the Egyptian-Saudi camp.”

Hamas is primarily concerned with economic progress in Gaza right now, he added.

The poverty rate in the strip is above 50 percent, according to the World Bank, and is expected to climb higher because of the impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Hamas “will continue to flirt with anyone” who can help Gaza financially and push Israel to ease the blockade, Saada said.

AFP