Hamas suffered two major blows on Sunday. The first was the destruction of a cross-border terror tunnel that ran from the Gaza Strip under the Kerem Shalom border crossing into both Israel and Egypt. The second was the attempt on the life of Mohamed Hamdan, one of the terrorist group's top operatives in Lebanon.
The discovery of the tunnel was the harsher blow, as it neutralized a strategic asset. The tunnel could have been used to mount attacks against Israel and perhaps target Kerem Shalom itself, the only crossing point for goods into Gaza.
But it is more likely that Hamas planned to use the tunnel to smuggle weapons and terrorists into Gaza, right under Egypt's and Israel's noses.
The tunnel's detection landed Hamas in hot water with three parties: with Israel, which yet again has proof of Hamas' offensive tactics; with Egypt, which is working to promote the Hamas-Fatah reconciliation and now knows Hamas is secretly digging terrorist tunnels breaching its border; and with the residents of Gaza, who depend on the Kerem Shalom crossing and have now realized that Hamas has placed this valuable pipeline at risk for its military purposes.
Israel did not miss the opportunity to highlight these three aspects. The footage of the tunnel, as well as the interviews Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai gave in Arabic, sought to make it clear to everyone exactly who the "bad guys" in this story are: those who are sabotaging Palestinian interests and threatening to spark an escalation.
Mordechai drove the point home and said Israel has intelligence on other terror tunnels. Hamas is likely to take this statement seriously. The tunnel destroyed on Sunday was the third the IDF has destroyed in recent months: An Islamic Jihad tunnel was blown up on Oct. 30, and a Hamas tunnel was leveled on Dec. 9.
For Israel, these discoveries mark a significant success, reflecting a combination of intelligence, operational capability and state-of-the-art technology.
For Hamas, this new reality entails a serious dilemma. The organization has invested staggering sums of money in its tunnel enterprise, positioning the tunnels as a strategic weapon against Israel. If the IDF continues to neutralize the tunnels at the current rate, Hamas will soon be stripped of them altogether, and it will have to decide whether to risk war to protect the tunnel enterprise, or avoid war and risk losing this strategic capability.
For the moment, Hamas has chosen to contain the situation. Gaza's leadership has prioritized the reconciliation efforts with Fatah in the hope of improving the dire economic situation in the enclave. This is why Hamas has curtailed other terrorist groups from firing rockets at Israel and why it has put a stop to protests near the border fence. The Palestinian Authority's decision to transfer funds and allow electricity to flow to Gaza was a positive signal by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who is now expecting more dividends.
But this self-restraint has not prevented Hamas from continuing its terrorist efforts on three other fronts. The group has never neglected its force-building efforts in preparation for a future confrontation with Israel, it continues in its attempts to carry out attacks in Judea and Samaria, and its overseas headquarters continues to maintain extensive military and political activity.
Hamdan, who by all indications survived an assassination attempt Sunday, is a key member of headquarters, which Hamas recently moved to Lebanon, after being expelled from Qatar and Turkey.
Hamas believed its officials would be safe in Lebanon. But that assumption has now been debunked. The car bombing that targeted Hamdan in Sidon showed Hamas that being on Lebanese soil does not make it immune to strikes.
Attempts of this nature usually place terror operatives on the defensive, making them preoccupied with their own survival rather than with planning terrorist attacks against Israel. This spells good news, even if temporarily, as Hamas is deterred on both the southern and the northern fronts.
