Israel may launch a new military attack against Gaza, says Palestinian analyst

A Gaza-based Palestinian political expert said that Israel may launch a sudden new military escalation against the coastal enclave if it cannot control the growing armed resistance in the occupied West Bank.

Currently, Israel is preoccupied with trying to curb any danger arising from the occupied West Bank and the south of Lebanon, mainly Hezbollah, but that does not mean that the Israeli occupation won't resort to a military offensive against Gaza, according to Hussam al-Dajani, a political expert from Gaza.

For the second day in a row, the Israeli army held a pre-planned military drill near the border with the besieged Gaza Strip. In a press statement, the army notified the Israeli residents of cities adjacent to the coastal enclave that they may see increased security forces in the area amid the drill.

The drill comes a day after a massive Israeli raid on the occupied West Bank city of Jenin killed at least seven Palestinians, including two children, and wounded more than 90 others.

"The radical Israeli government wanted to send many messages to the armed resistance in Gaza that it is likely to neutralise Gaza from the actions in the West Bank. But it is ready for any sudden reactions adopted in Gaza," al-Dajani said.

"Israel wants to implement a broader aggression against Jenin, but fears that the security situation in Gaza will explode," he added. 

"[Israel] wants to first probe the borders of the Strip and see whether the armed factions are at a high degree of readiness in light of the escalating indicators of the explosion of the security situation in the Palestinian territories," he added.

He called on the resistance factions to take all levels of caution as everything is possible from, what he described as "the fascist government of Benjamin Netanyahu", despite its focus on the northern front of Hezbollah and the Iranian nuclear program.