WarSclerotic

Iran said Wednesday that the latest round of U.S. sanctions is an “insult” to the international order that stems from “blind hostility.”

On Tuesday the U.S. imposed sanctions on businesses allegedly linked to the Basij, a volunteer wing of the Islamic republic’s powerful Revolutionary Guard Corps. The businesses include several banks as well as mining, industrial and trade companies.

The U.S. has steadily restored sanctions on Iran following President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear accord in May. Next month the U.S. plans to impose sanctions on Iran’s oil and gas industry.

Iran is already in the grip of an economic crisis and has seen sporadic protests in recent months.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Wednesday that the United States’ latest economic sanctions against Iran display a disregard for the human rights of all Iranians.

“Latest U.S. sanctions violate two ICJ [International Court of Justice] orders: to not impede humanitarian trade and to not aggravate the dispute. Utter disregard for rule of law and human rights of an entire people. U.S. outlaw regime’s hostility toward Iranians is heightened by an addiction to sanctions,” Zarif tweeted.

“U.S. addiction to sanctions is out of control,” Zarif also wrote on Twitter.

He said in the tweet that one of the banks was vital for food and medicine imports and seemed to suggest it was not close to the Basij force, without it directly.

“Iranian private bank key to food/medicine import is designated because of alleged EIGHT degrees of separation with another arbitrary target. In comparison, all humans on the planet are connected by SIX degrees of separation. You do the math,” Zarif said on Twitter.

Earlier, Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi railed against the “spitefulness” of the U.S. government in imposing the sanctions, calling the new sanctions “cruel and unfair.”

Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel has called off a planned visit to the Gaza Strip, Ramallah and Israel, officially citing a scheduling conflict, but commentators surmised that the cancellation may be a response to rocket attacks launched from Gaza into Israel on Wednesday.

Kamel’s visit was meant to advance Egyptian efforts to mediate a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas, whose clashes along the Israel-Gaza border have intensified in recent weeks, culminating with Wednesday’s Grad rocket strike on a Beersheba home.

An Egyptian intelligence and diplomatic delegation that had arrived in Gaza to prepare the groundwork for Kamel’s intended visit, initially planned for Thursday, left the Strip on Wednesday before setting a new date for Kamel’s shuttle diplomacy mission.

A member of the Egyptian delegation told Israel Hayom that the official reason for postponing Kamel’s mission was the fact that he was accompanying Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi on his trip to Russia, which was taking longer than planned.

But a senior Palestinian official told Israel Hayom that the Egyptians were surprised by the rocket fire and didn’t mince words in admonishing the leaders of Hamas and other armed Palestinian factions in Gaza, with whom they met Wednesday morning, shortly after the rockets were launched at Israel.

No Palestinian group has claimed responsibility for the rocket fire and several hours after it occurred, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees issued a joint statement saying: “We appreciate the Egyptian efforts to secure the demands of our people, and oppose any attempts to sabotage these efforts – including the rocket fire at Israel.”

According to another Palestinian official, the statement was issued at Egypt’s demand. “They viewed the rocket launch at Israel during their visit in Gaza as a personal affront, and worse, as putting their lives in danger,” the official said.

After the rocket fire, Israel carried out airstrikes across Gaza, and members of the Egyptian delegation in Gaza City at the time heard and also felt the shockwaves caused by the Israeli bombs.

Palestinian media outlets reported that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was expected to depart for Jordan this weekend, where he will meet Jordanian King Abdullah and other senior Jordanian officials.

A senior Jordanian official told Israel Hayom this week that Abbas would likely hear a message similar to the one he heard from the Egyptians, namely that he should lift the economic sanctions he is imposing on the population in Gaza.

“Abbas needs to understand he cannot use the population in Gaza as a bargaining chip against Hamas, Israel or Egypt. He has to allow all the proceedings to be exhausted, to facilitate an arrangement and improve the lives in Gaza, which is collapsing under a dire humanitarian crisis,” he said.

Hamas, the rulers of the Gaza Strip, and Palestinian terrorist group ‎Islamic Jihad both were quick to deny launching rockets from Gaza ‎Wednesday, after a Grad rocket fired on Israel scored a direct hit on a Beersheba home and another landed ‎in the sea, off the coast ‎‎‎‎of a major central ‎Israeli city

Six people, including a woman and her three ‎‎‎children, managed to survive the Beersheba rocket attack with only minor ‎‎injuries. In response, ‎Israeli fighter jets struck 20 Hamas positions in ‎‎ ‎‎Gaza, and the flare-up sparked concerns that a rapid ‎escalation may be inevitable. ‎

‎”There is only one element that wants to see a war in ‎the Gaza Strip right now, and that is Iran,” former National Security Adviser Maj. Gen. (ret.) Yaakov Amidror noted. “So we have to ask ‎ourselves which of their proxies in Gaza have long-range rockets, then counter them.”

It would be a “very big mistake,” he warned, if Israel were to “fall into the Iranian trap and launch a military operation in Gaza. That would play directly into the Iranians’ hands.”‎

Yoni Ben-Menachem, a research fellow at the ‎Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, disagrees. ‎Ben-Menachem argues that Wednesday’s rocket fire was Hamas’ ‎handiwork, as Gaza’s rulers sought to set facts on ‎the ground vis-à-vis Israel and Egypt. ‎

‎”No other group in Gaza would dare fire two long-range rockets at Israel like this. The attack didn’t target the ‎Gaza-vicinity communities – this was aimed at ‎Beersheba and central Israel,” he said.‎

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Had both projectiles resulted in Israeli fatalities, ‎it would surely lead to war, he explained, adding ‎that “no rogue group in Gaza would do something like ‎that without getting the green light from Hamas. ‎This is why, as the sovereign entity in Gaza, Hamas ‎is responsible.”‎

‎”Hamas continues to claim that a rogue group was ‎behind the attack only so it can deflect the claims ‎brought against it, but it’s a lie. Unfortunately, ‎the Israeli defense establishment seems to be ‎willing to believe this lie,” Ben-Menachem said. ‎

As for the timing of the attack, Ben-Menachem pegs ‎it on the arrival of Egyptian intelligence officials ‎in Gaza as part of Cairo’s attempts to broker a ‎long-term cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas.‎

‎”Be very careful in romanticizing the relations between Hamas ‎and Egypt, because Hamas is ‎very displeased with the way Egyptian intelligence ‎is handling the truce talks,” he said.‎

‎”Hamas is actually sending mixed signals: its message to Egypt is that it is dissatisfied with the way ‎the negotiations are being handled, while at the same time, it ‎signals to Israel that any forceful strike in Gaza ‎would risk massive retaliation targeting the Israeli ‎homefront,” he explained.

‎”Hamas maintains an iron grip on Gaza. It controls everything, down ‎to the last firebomb balloon, so even if they say, ‎‎’We didn’t do it’ – they did,” he said. “I can only assume that ‎Israeli intelligence misjudged the situation and was ‎unprepared for long-range rocket fire on Israel. That’s a ‎failure on their part. We can’t trust Hamas, so we ‎have to be prepared for any scenario.”‎

Bar-‎Ilan University Middle Eastern Studies Department’s Dr. Yehuda Balanga, an expert on Syria and Egypt, ‎believes there are other parties in Gaza who wish to capitalize on Israel and Egypt’s obvious interest in a Gaza truce.

‎”Hamas may be the sovereign in Gaza, but there are ‎more radical forces on the ground, and while Hamas ‎tries to rein them in, these organizations have ‎their own agenda and they see every attack on Israel ‎as a great victory,” he said. ‎

These groups, he explained, “understand that given ‎the tensions in [Israel’s] northern sector and the fact ‎that this is an election year, Israel won’t strike ‎back.” ‎

‎”For these groups, any rocket fired from Gaza is an ‎achievement because it does not endanger them. They ‎know Israel will not pursue the end of Hamas’ ‎regime, nor will it pursue ‎their elimination so as ‎far as these groups are concerned, they are the ‎winners here.” ‎

These groups, Balanga explained, “Have their own ‎agenda and part of it is to embarrass Hamas. The ‎fact that the head of Egyptian intelligence was ‎headed to the Strip to try and advance the truce ‎efforts made it the perfect time for them to act.” ‎

‎”Everyone knows that despite the attempts to ‎postpone the inevitable, Israel will eventually ‎launch another military campaign in Gaza. This means ‎that these radicals have nothing to lose. Whatever ‎the scenario – they will survive and will most ‎likely be hailed as heroes by the Gazans. That’s why ‎they fire rockets,” he concluded.

Hamas has decided to scale back the violent weekly protests along Gaza’s border with Israel in an effort to bring down the number of casualties among the protesters, the London-based Arabic-language newspaper Al-Hayat reported Thursday.

A Palestinian source in the Gaza Strip told Al-Hayat that the organization had made its decision after being pressured by a delegation of senior Egyptian intelligence officials that arrived in Gaza on Tuesday to mediate a cease-fire agreement between Israel and the Gaza rulers. The decision was made before two long-range rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel Wednesday, one of which demolished a family home in Beersheba.

Hamas has denied any responsibility for the rocket attacks.

The newspaper reported that the Egyptian officials had persuaded Hamas to de-escalate the tensions with Israel after a Hamas operative was killed in a retaliatory Israeli missile strike on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, reports Wednesday that suggested that Egypt had brokered a cease-fire between Israel and ‎Hamas were not corroborated by Egyptian or Israeli officials.

The Palestinian Maan news agency reported that ‎Egyptian officials who are visiting Gaza in efforts to mediate a long-term truce teamed ‎with U.N. Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov and ‎held urgent meetings with the Palestinian factions ‎in Gaza.‎

Egyptian intelligence official Ahmed Abdel Khalek, ‎who heads the delegation, was able to convince the ‎Gazan groups to halt their fire, the report said.‎