by Osama Radi, Saud Abu Ramadan
GAZA, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- The recent rising tensions between Israeli military and Islamic militants in the Gaza Strip, the worst since 2014, are unlikely to escalate into another large-scale conflict, analysts said Sunday.
The Israeli army announced on Saturday that four of its soldiers were injured when Gaza militants detonated a roadside bomb close to the fence of the border between the coastal enclave and Israel.
In return, Israeli war jets and tanks struck targets in the Gaza Strip, killing two Palestinians, wounding two others and destroying 18 military facilities and tunnels.
This was the worst clashes between Israel and militants in Gaza since the end of the large-scale Israeli military offensive in 2014, analysts noted.
There are renewed fears that the rising tensions could escalate to another large-scale conflict, at a time when the peace process between Israelis and the Palestinians hit a snag especially after the U.S. government recognizes the disputed city of Jerusalem as Israel's capital despite angry Palestinian protests.
Adnan Abu Amer, an Israeli analyst, told Xinhua that the bombing on Saturday was "an unusual event in recent years since the 2014 war on Gaza," as it showed that the militants had coordinated with the Hamas rulers in Gaza.
However, Abu Amer ruled out that Israel would take the initiative at this stage to launch a large-scale military offensive on the Gaza Strip.
"In my evaluation, the thing won't exceed the routine and regular Israeli army retaliation against militants' attacks," he said.
Since 2008, Israel has waged three large-scale military air and ground offensives on the Gaza Strip to attack the militant groups, including Hamas and the Islamic Jihad movement, in an attempt to prevent them from firing rockets and digging tunnels underneath the border into Israel with an aim to carry out attacks and abduct soldiers.
Saturday's military escalation between Israel and Gaza militants coincided with the visit of a senior Hamas delegation headed by its political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Cairo, Egypt since last week.
Israeli war jets carried out a series of intensive airstrikes on Hamas and Islamic Jihad posts, training facilities, weapons storehouses, and one tunnel that was going from Gaza into Israel.
Recently, tensions between the two sides keep flaring up, as shown in the firing of about 20 rockets on the southern part of Israel, which responded with airstrikes since U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Dec. 6 to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
The eastern areas of the Gaza Strip, close to the fence of the borders with Israel, have been witnessing weekly protests every Friday, leaving scores of Palestinians killed and wounded by Israeli gunfire.
Another Israeli expert, Yukhai Ofer, predicted that the Saturday clashes could prompt the Israeli army to "change its approach" against Palestinian protests near the border fence.
He said the latest explosion has alerted Israeli army about the danger of the Palestinian demonstrations as the militants are using protester to plant explosive devices along the border.
Israeli army spokesman Ronin Manlis accused Hamas of trying to turn the border area into an arena for confrontation, stressing that the army would not allow it.
Palestinian factions have announced recently that they are organizing mass rallies for next month near the border fence as part of its plan to pressure Israel to end more than 11 years of an blockade on the enclave.
Mustafa Ibrahim, a political analyst from Gaza, said he expected the Israeli army in the coming days to take "stricter measures to prevent protesters from reaching the fence, which could increase tensions."
Ibrahim points out that the Israeli army will most likely deploy its forces along the fence and increase the bombing strikes to deter the Palestinians.
"It is likely that Israel is trying to postpone the next aggression on the Gaza Strip and play on the time factor to complete the construction of the underground wall under the fence of the borders," he said.
Ibrahim, a specialist in Israeli affairs, said Israel now thinks its priority is dealing with the threat from the northern front, namely from Syria and Lebanon, ahead of Gaza.
"The war there will be more dangerous and costly, and Israel believes that, by playing the time factor, things in Gaza may continue to calm," he said.
In the meantime, the tensions in the Gaza Strip cannot be separated from the tense Palestinian ties with the United States, since Trump's declaration of his decision on Jerusalem.
Akram Atallah, a writer and a political analyst from Gaza, told Xinhua that the U.S. desires to end the Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip, while Israel harbors the longstanding desire to disarm the Gaza Strip.
He warned that the factors exist for an explosion of the situation between Israel and the Gaza Strip, in light of many regional developments, including the tensions on the Israeli frontiers with Lebanon and Syria, the the upcoming presidential election in Egypt.
But he added that the security that has been achieved on the border between Gaza and Israel has eliminated a mass explosion so far, and the recent exchange of threats with the use of force between the two sides could be in fact an alternative to actually using it.
