WarSclerotic

Israel has agreed to implement a series of measures within a week, including lifting restrictions on the import of many goods into the Gaza Strip, as part of a ceasefire agreement with terror groups in the coastal enclave, a senior Palestinian official in the territory said Tuesday.

After two days of intense fighting over the weekend in which terror groups launched over 650 rockets at southern Israel and the Israel Defense Forces carried out more than 300 retaliatory strikes throughout Gaza, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad announced that Egypt and other international parties had successfully brokered a truce deal.

A number of Arabic news sites have published varying reports detailing the terms of the deal.

The senior Gaza-based official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Times of Israel that the agreement “basically focuses on Israel implementing what it previously agreed to carry out, but now Israel has pledged for the first time to do so within one week.”

In return, he said Gaza’s rulers are to put an end to all “resistance” against Israel, except for “peaceful” border protests.

He added that “all options would be on the table” if the Jewish state does not abide by the deal.

The Prime Minister’s Office, the Foreign Ministry and the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories — the Defense Ministry body responsible for liaising with the Palestinians — declined to comment on the official’s description of the ceasefire deal.

As a rule, Israeli officials do not acknowledge the existence of talks with the Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip, which it considers terror groups.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested on Monday that Israel has only temporarily halted its fire at Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

“Over the past two days, we have hit Hamas and Islamic Jihad with great force, attacking over 350 targets and terrorist leaders and activists, and destroying terrorist infrastructure,” he said in a statement. “The campaign is not over and requires patience and judgment. We are preparing to continue. The goal was and remains to ensure the peace and security of the residents of the south.”

Trucks loaded with goods and merchandise make deliveries to the Gaza Strip after the Kerem Shalom crossing was opened on August 15, 2018. (Flash90)

The Gaza-based official, who is a senior politician, said Israel agreed to “lift restrictions on importing 30% of so-called dual-use goods into Gaza and allow for increased exports from [the Strip].”

For the past several years, Israel has heavily restricted the entry into Gaza of products that it labels “dual-use,” meaning that they can be utilized for both civilian and military purposes. Palestinians in Gaza have been required to receive special permits to import goods that Israel categorizes as dual-use.

Jerusalem has long held that its restrictions on the movement of goods aim to prevent Hamas and other terror groups sworn to the destruction of the Jewish state from obtaining weapons and the materials to produce them.

The Gaza official also said Israel consented to allow the transfer of Qatari funds into the coastal enclave geared toward small grants for impoverished families, salaries of Hamas-appointed civil servants, and United Nations-supervised cash-for-work projects.

“These are all matters that Israel agreed to two months ago, but evaded implementing,” he said, adding that the Jewish state also approved the continued entry of Qatari-bought fuel into the Strip.

Over the past several months, Israel has at times permitted Qatar to distribute funds to poor families as well as Hamas-appointed government employees. It has also allowed for Qatari-purchased fuel to enter Gaza since October 2018 to power the Strip’s sole power plant.

Alluding to the cash-for-work program, the Gaza official said that it aims to help “new university graduates find employment.”

The UN agreed with Qatar in January to take $20 million from Doha to create temporary employment opportunities in Gaza.

Jamie McGoldrick, the deputy UN special coordinator to the Middle East peace process, said on Monday in a call that he estimates the $20 million will establish some 10,000 temporary jobs. He noted that additional funding announced by Qatar on Tuesday for Gaza will likely provide 20,000 extra temporary positions.

He said some of the jobs would last for six months, while others would be for nine months.

Qatar announced earlier Tuesday that it would send $480 million to the West Bank and Gaza to “aid the brotherly Palestinian people in obtaining its basic needs.”

The unemployment rate in Gaza stands at 52 percent, according to the Palestinian Authority Central Bureau of Statistics.

Postal workers aid Palestinians who arrived at the central post office in Gaza City on January 26, 2019, to receive financial aid from the Qatari government given to impoverished families. (Mahmud Hams/AFP)

The Gaza official added that Israel also agreed to expand the fishing zone off of Gaza’s coast.

“Israel consented to widening the fishing zone to six nautical miles in the north, nine near Gaza City, 12 in the center and 15 in the south,” he said. “This is the same arrangement that was implemented at the start of April.”

Israel expanded the fishing zone to 15 nautical miles in some areas off Gaza’s coast in early April, but subsequently reduced and then canceled the move in response to rocket fire.

There are 3,700 fishermen in Gaza, the vast majority of whom live below the poverty line, a 2018 report by the B’Tselem human rights group said.

The official also said that Israel committed to “halting all aggression against Palestinians in Gaza including fishermen and farmers near the border.”

Israel has called on Palestinians in Gaza to stay away from the border with Israel, warning that approaching it puts their lives at risk.

For over the past year, the IDF has opened fire on many Palestinians in the coastal enclave participating in weekly border protests, including a large number who lobbed firebombs and rocks at soldiers in addition to carrying out other acts of violence.

Palestinians wave Palestinian flags as they try to climb the security fence on the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip, east of Gaza City, on March 22, 2019. (Said Khatib/AFP)

The official added that in return for Israel implementing all the aforementioned measures within a week, Palestinians in Gaza will halt “all resistance against Israel except for the weekly protests along the border in their peaceful form.” This formulation would appear to include a halt to the launching of incendiary balloons and kites across the border into Israel.

Asked what would happen if Israel did not implement the measures within a week and whether terror groups would start firing rockets at Israel during the Eurovision Song Contest, he said “all options would be on the table.”

“We would need to meet and decide our response, but I can assure you that we will not allow Israel to evade abiding by its commitments,” he said.

The Eurovision Song Contest is slated to take place in Tel Aviv on May 14-18.

Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency reportedly tipped off the United States on an impending Iranian attack on American interests in the Gulf, prompting Washington to deploy an aircraft carrier strike group to the region late Sunday, in a sharp escalation of US President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign.

John Bolton, Trump’s national security adviser who advocated attacking Iran before taking up the post, announced late Sunday that the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group would sail to unspecified waters in the vicinity of Iran.

The deployment is aimed at sending “a clear and unmistakable message to the Iranian regime that any attack on United States interests or on those of our allies will be met with unrelenting force,” Bolton said.

“The United States is not seeking war with the Iranian regime, but we are fully prepared to respond to any attack, whether by proxy, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or regular Iranian forces.”

US President Donald Trump, left, meets with South Korean President Moon Jae-In in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, as national security adviser John Bolton, right, watches. May 22, 2018. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

According to Israel’s Channel 13, Israeli officials conveyed information gathered largely by the Mossad on an Iranian plan to attack either a US or US-allied target, details of which were not provided to the network.

The threat was initially raised two weeks ago in the White House, officials told Channel 13, when an Israeli delegation led by National Security Council head Meir Ben-Shabbat huddled with their American counterparts.

“It is still unclear to us what the Iranians are trying to do and how they are planning to do it, but it is clear to us that the Iranian temperature is on the rise as a result of the growing US pressure campaign against them, and they are considering retaliating against US interests in the Gulf,” an official was quoted as saying.

The USS Abraham Lincoln has previously been deployed to the Gulf, including during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and was the scene of then-president George W. Bush’s later notorious victory speech in front of a banner that read “Mission Accomplished.”

The Pentagon had already announced with little fanfare last month that the USS Abraham Lincoln and the rest of its strike group had headed on a “regularly scheduled deployment” out of its base in Norfolk, Virginia.

But Bolton gave the deployment a new urgency as he said that it was in response to “a number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings” by Iran.

Iranian navy personnel celebrate after successfully launching a Ghader missile from the Jask port area on the shores of the Gulf of Oman during a drill near the Strait of Hormuz, January 1, 2013. (AP/Jamejam Online, Azin Haghighi)

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters he could not elaborate on what those indications were, but said they were separate from a violent flare-up between Israel and Hamas, the Iranian-backed Islamist terror group that runs the Gaza Strip.

Mark Dubowitz, chief executive of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, which advocates a hard line on Iran, said he had heard of a “spike” in intelligence in recent days about planned attacks.

He believed Iran had given the green-light to the missiles out of Gaza by Hamas and allied movement Islamic Jihad.

A picture taken on May 5, 2019 from the Israel-Gaza border shows a barrage of rockets being fired from the Hamas-run Palestinian enclave. (Jack GUEZ / AFP)

The strikes sought “to tie down Israeli forces and create a crisis to distract the US and Israel from IRGC plans elsewhere,” he said, referring to Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards.

Other observers were much more skeptical, believing that Bolton had seized on a routine deployment as a way to pile pressure on Iran.

The statement came almost a year to the date after Trump pulled the United States out of a multinational accord under which Tehran drastically scaled back its sensitive nuclear work.

“I think this is manufactured by Bolton to try to justify the administration’s very harsh policy toward Iran, despite the fact that Iran has been complying with the nuclear deal,” said Barbara Slavin, the director of the Future of Iran Initiative at the Atlantic Council think tank.

“Given Bolton’s record,” she said, “I wouldn’t put it past him to try to manufacture a crisis here.”

UN inspectors say that Iran has been in compliance with the nuclear deal, which is still backed by European powers as well as Trump’s Democratic rivals seeking to unseat him next year.

But Iranians have voiced frustration that they have not seen a promised economic boon, with Trump instead slapping sweeping sanctions on the country.

In recent weeks, the Trump administration has hit even harder, moving to ban all countries from buying Iran’s oil, its top export, and declaring the Revolutionary Guards to be a terrorist group — the first such designation of a unit of a foreign government.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani may announce “retaliatory measures” on Wednesday on the anniversary of the US pullout, the semi-official ISNA news agency said on Monday.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A sudden White House announcement that a US aircraft carrier and a bomber wing would be deployed in the Persian Gulf to counter Iran comes just days ahead of the anniversary of US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw America from Tehran’s nuclear deal.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is said to be planning a speech Wednesday on the anniversary to discuss the next steps Tehran will take in confronting the US. Officials in the Islamic Republic previously warned that Iran might increase its uranium enrichment, potentially pulling away from a deal it has sought to salvage for months.

The military has almost always had an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf as part of its sprawling military presence in the strategic region, but had begun to scale back its presence as the air campaign against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria wound down.

Sunday night’s statement from national security adviser John Bolton said the USS Abraham Lincoln, other ships in the carrier’s strike group and a bomber wing would deploy to the Mideast. Bolton blamed “a number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings,” without elaborating.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani speaks during the inauguration ceremony of four projects at the South Pars gas field on the northern coast of the Persian Gulf, in Asaluyeh, Iran, March 17, 2019. (AP/Vahid Salemi)

“The United States is not seeking war with the Iranian regime, but we are fully prepared to respond to any attack, whether by proxy, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or regular Iranian forces,” Bolton said.

In Iran, the semi-official ISNA news agency on Monday quoted an anonymous official as saying that Rouhani planned a broadcast address Wednesday and may discuss the “counteractions” Tehran will take over America’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal. It said Iranian officials have informed their European counterparts — with whom Iran has been trying to salvage the agreement — of the planned speech.

“Partial and total reduction of some of Iran’s commitments and resumption of some nuclear activities which were ceased following (the deal) are the first step,” ISNA said. Iranian state television and the semi-official Fars news agency similarly suggested an Iranian response loomed.

A spokesman for Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Keivan Khosravi, also dismissed Bolton’s comments as “psychological warfare.”

The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog says Iran has continued to comply with the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal, which saw it limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. But American sanctions have wreaked havoc on Iran’s already-anemic economy, while promised help from European partners in the deal haven’t alleviated the pain.

US National Security Advisor John Bolton unveils the Trump Administration’s Africa Strategy at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, December 13, 2018. (Cliff Owen/AP)

The US last week stopped issuing waivers for countries importing Iranian crude oil, a crucial source of cash for Iran’s government.

It’s unclear what specific threat American officials perceive coming from Iran. A US official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, said American troops at land and sea could be targeted.

The USS Abraham Lincoln had been in the Mediterranean Sea conducting operations alongside the USS John C. Stennis, another aircraft carrier that has twice been in the Persian Gulf in recent months.

However, American military officials have stopped the near-continuous presence of aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf, a pattern set following the 1991 Gulf War. American air bases spanning the region can scramble fighter jets and drones, lessening the necessity of an aircraft carrier as U.S. officials also worry about China and Russia.

Already in the Persian Gulf is a group of US Navy warships led by the USS Kearsarge, an amphibious assault ship carrying troops from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit. The Kearsarge also carries AV-8B Harrier fighter jets, MH-60 helicopters and MV-22 Osprey airplanes.

The USS Kearsarge in the Gulf of Aqaba, June 4, 2013. (Jose E. Ponce/US Navy, released by C5F PAO)

Across the wider 5th Fleet, there were 17 warships deployed, according to the most-recent count by the US Naval Institute, which tracks deployments around the world.

The Bahrain-based 5th Fleet declined to comment on the White House announcement when reached by the AP on Monday.

It also remains unclear what bomber wing would be deployed to the region. Typically, the al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar, home to the forward headquarters of the US military’s Central Command, hosts such bomber deployments.

In late March, the Air Force acknowledged a rare gap in bomber cover in the Mideast after a squadron of B-1 Lancers left al-Udeid to return to Texas. B-52 bombers also had been deployed to the area to keep up attacks on the Islamic State group, the first time the aging aircraft had deployed to the region in 25 years.

Officials at al-Udeid, which also hosts the F-35 fighter jet, declined to answer questions from the AP.

Members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) march during the annual military parade, marking the anniversary of the outbreak of the devastating 1980-1988 war with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, in the capital Tehran, on September 22, 2018. (AFP/STR)

The Trump administration, which abruptly announced in December that it was pulling out of Syria, still maintains 2,000 US troops in the northern part of the war-torn country. Officials suggest they serve as a check on Iranian ambitions and help ensure that Islamic State fighters do not regroup. No significant US forces have so far withdrawn from Syria.

Trump has also said he has no plans to withdraw the 5,200 troops stationed in Iraq as part of a security agreement to advise, assist and support the country’s troops in the fight against IS. Earlier this year, Trump angered Iraqi politicians and Iranian-backed factions by saying troops should stay there to keep an eye on neighboring Iran.