The next war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza will be the last for the Islamist regime, a senior source in the Defense Ministry said on Wednesday, though he stressed that Israel is not seeking conflict and will not be the side to initiate hostilities.

An unnamed Hamas security official alleged yesterday that a number of employees of international organizations operating in Gaza were caught spying for Israel under the pretense of providing humanitarian aid. The source claimed that under questioning, the suspects had confessed to exploiting the freedom of movement they enjoy as aid workers to take pictures of sensitive military installations, military exercises, and the locations of subterranean tunnels, and that they had passed the information to foreign intelligence organizations cooperating with Israel.

[FMEP note: it is unclear if these allegations are true.]

A clash broke out between security forces and local residents in the West Bank settlement of Givat Gal near Hebron on Monday night, when representatives from the Defense Ministry demolished an illegally built structure in the community, officials said.

“No amount of preventive repression or collective punishment will bring an end to the bloodletting in Tel Aviv or elsewhere. As long as this oppressive system [the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank] stands, and the United States continues to support it with billions of dollars a year in military aid, despair will spread, and with it death,” writes Ben Ehrenreich.

The Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee has approved a construction permit for a three-unit building intended for Jews in the largely Palestinian Silwan neighborhood.

Israeli cultural institutions received a form from the government on Monday asking them to state whether they had or hadn’t offered performances last year in the Negev, the Galilee or West Bank settlements.

“Hundreds of millions of dollars are being poured into efforts to defeat BDS. As long as our community continues to support military occupation and settlements, these efforts are doomed to fail,” writes Jill Jacobs.

“The question of Palestine is still the long open wound of the Arab world and, until it is healed, it is hard to see how a Saudi-Israel relationship can move in a more overt direction,” writes Yousef Munayyer.

“The vicious attacks by Likud members against Amir Peretz of the Zionist Camp and Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai reflect the refusal by Israeli public opinion to accept any linkage between the occupation and terror attacks,” writes Mazal Mualem.

“If Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were interested in peace, he would have a Knesset majority to back him and at least six options to pursue,” writes Akiva Eldar.

Hamas’s political chief, Khaled Mashaal, will not try to retain his office in the upcoming elections for the leadership of the terror group, which rules Gaza, Arab media reported on Tuesday.