Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has cut short his visit to Paris following the clash in the Gaza Strip yesterday in which an IDF lieutenant-colonel was killed and another Israeli soldier was severely wounded. Seven Palestinians are reported dead in the incident, among them a senior figure in the military arm of Hamas.
<p> The IDF says that the force entered the Gaza Strip in an intelligence gathering operation, and was discovered by a Hamas unit, which opened fire. The force was evacuated under cover provided by the Israel Air Force. Several rockets were subsequently fired from the Gaza Strip at Israeli settlements in the border area. Three were intercepted by the Iron Dome system; the rest fell on open ground.
<p>The incident comes at a time when diplomatic efforts led by Egypt to broker an agreement between Israel and Hamas, following several months in which tensions have threatened to escalate into all-out conflict, looked as though they might bear fruit. It also comes just hours after Netanyahu said in Paris, where he was participating in events marking the end of World War One, that he wanted to give a further chance to the first stage of an arrangement with Hamas. At the weekend, Israel allowed the transfer of a reported $15 million in cash to the Gaza Strip from Qatar, partly for the payment of wages to government employees.
<p>Netanyahu explained at length that he preferred to avoid a military operation, because it was not possible to obtain a better result than the conditions prevailing at present, and that he aimed to return to the stand-off between Israel and Hamas that lasted until March this year. Earlier, he said that there could be no political settlement with Hamas, just as there could be no such settlement with the Islamic State.
<p>Netanyahu was due to have meetings today with President Emmanuel Macron of France and with heads of Jewish organizations. Yesterday, following a ceremony to mark the centenary of the armistice ending World War One, Netanyahu attended a luncheon where he talked briefly with President Vladimir Putin of Russia, US President Donald Trump, and Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel. The conversation with Putin was the first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders since a Russian Ilyushin 20 aircraft was shot down in Lebanon in September by Syrian anti-aircraft fire, with the loss of 14 crew, an incident that the Russians blamed on operations by the Israel Air Force in the area and that reportedly greatly angered Putin.
<p><i>Published by Globes, Israel business news - <a href=http://en.globes.co.il>en.globes.co.il</a> - on November 12, 2018</i>
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