Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad extended an escalation in rocket and missile fire that began on Monday and included barrages on Wednesday and Thursday, firing rockets at the western Negev and at the Israeli cities of Sderot and Netivot. The IAF responded by striking terrorist infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, including tunnels in the northern Gaza Strip. TIP’s analysis of the current escalation, which bears some hallmarks suggesting that Hamas is preparing for a full-blown war of the kind that it provoked in December 2008, is here.

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