Jerusalem, June 03: Israel’s deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla has put huge pressure on Tel Aviv to lift its blockade of the Palestinian enclave, but analysts say there will unlikely be more than humanitarian gestures.
The bungled operation, in which nine passengers were killed, brought an international chorus of outrage and intensified calls for Israel to end its vice-like siege, tightened in 2007 when the democratically elected resistance Hamas movement seized power.
Even Israel’s staunchest ally, the United States, has declared the blockade “unsustainable and unacceptable,” while the UN and aid groups say it is causing a humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
But Israel has vowed to allow no breaches in its ‘wall’ around Gaza — saying the blockade is crucial for stopping Hamas getting its hands on an unlimited supply of rockets to use against the Israeli occupation.
The siege has also been used to put sustained pressure on Gaza’s population in the hope it would undermine the rule of Hamas.
At the same time Israel hoped it would lead to the return of captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, which the Palestinians want to exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
Although the blockade appears to have failed to weaken Hamas, and has had little if any impact on the fate of Shalit, analysts say there is no chance of Israel relinquishing its stranglehold on the tiny coastal strip.
“The same policies will continue,” said Efraim Inbar, the director of the hawkish Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies, insisting Israel would continue to prevent attempts by aid activists to run the blockade.
“The only difference is next time we will do it better,” he said.
One of the most contentious aspects of Israel’s blockade is the huge number of banned items which are not allowed into the Strip for “security reasons” — items such as pasta, sage and toilet paper.
Although Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu promised in the wake of Monday’s raid that “any goods” would be allowed in, except weapons and materials for making arms and cement — aid agencies say nothing has changed on the ground.
“Israel prevents the entry of hundreds of items into the Gaza Strip,” said the Israeli rights group Gisha, which has challenged the blockade in the courts.
It is on these items that Israel may buckle, analysts say.
“There are growing demands from some quarters to eliminate all constraints and have unfettered access to Gaza, but that is not viable for Israel,” said Mark Heller, a strategic analyst from Tel Aviv University.
“But it might lead to some more transparency in restrictions and limitations on goods and people,” he said.
The siege failed to reduce the popularity of Hamas.
“The blockade has been a singular failure,” said Mukhaimer Abu Saada, political science professor at Al-Azhar University in Gaza.
Egypt, which has come under harsh criticism from other Arab countries for keeping the border closed and for building an underground wall in a bid to curb smuggling, opened the crossing for humanitarian aid in the wake of the raid.
The Rafah crossing with Egypt, Gaza’s sole border crossing that bypasses Israel, rarely opens as Egypt is under immense US and Israeli pressure to keep the crossing shut.
However, the flotilla incident has sparked calls for Israel to consider a radically different solution, claiming the current status-quo is untenable for Israel.
“The attempt to control Gaza from outside, via its residents’ diet and shopping lists, casts a heavy moral stain on Israel and increases its international isolation,” wrote Aluf Benn, a leading analyst with the Haaretz daily.
Benn called for Israel to end the blockade, but at the same time sever all ties with Gaza — and with it, responsibility for Gaza’s residents.
Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from inside Gaza in 2005, but the Strip is still considered under Israeli occupation as Israel controls air, sea and land access to the territory.
Gaza is also part of Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, which include the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
—Agencies