Middle East expert Jan Busse on the attack in Jerusalem: “Hamas is doing everything it can to escalate the situation.”

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Two brothers opened fire at a bus stop in Jerusalem on Thursday. At least three people were killed in the attack. According to police, the two attackers were “quickly killed by gunfire by two off-duty soldiers and a civilian.”

Just a few hours later, the terrorist organization Hamas claimed responsibility for the attacks. It is said that this is “a natural response to the unprecedented criminality committed by the occupiers in the Gaza Strip.” At the same time, the organization calls for an “escalation of resistance”. This is what the law means for the war in the Middle East.

Hamas says the attack was in response to an incident in Jenin in the West Bank. The Israeli army is said to have killed children there in connection with a military operation. Jan Busse, an expert on Israel and Palestine at the University of the Bundeswehr in Munich, explained to Blick: “We can only speculate at the moment about the real reasons for the timing of the attack.”

The situation in Jerusalem has been very tense in recent weeks. Jerusalem has always been one of the main points of contention in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian territories. According to Busse, Israel has occupied East Jerusalem since 1967, where mainly Palestinian civilians live. The right-wing government led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (74) has made the situation even worse, further fueling the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians in the region.

According to Busse, the conflict could escalate further. “Since the attack on October 7, Hamas has been counting on the situation outside the Gaza Strip to escalate,” he explains. “Both in the West Bank and Jerusalem and at the regional level, especially through Hezbollah in Lebanon.”

The situation in the West Bank in particular is currently extremely tense, as there has been a dramatic increase in violence by Israeli settlers in the region and a wave of arrests.

Moreover, according to Busse, 238 Palestinians have been murdered in the West Bank since October 7. Another reason for the terrorist organization Hamas to try to justify the attack in Jerusalem. “This situation is explosive and there could also be further escalation in the West Bank.”

The attack came shortly after the ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas, which had been in force since Friday, was extended. Will this now be sabotaged by this attack? “My impression is that Israel sees the attack in Jerusalem as separate from the agreement with Hamas on the release of the hostages,” Busse said.

After all, the Israeli government knows what is at stake. The Israeli government is under intense domestic pressure to make progress in repatriating the hostages. The hostages’ families launched a campaign under the slogan ‘Bring them home’. Ending the exchange of hostages and prisoners would be politically fatal.

Expert Busse sees a reason elsewhere for the possible failure of the ceasefire: “If the ceasefire fails, it will be less the result of the attack and more the result of detailed questions about the preconditions of the agree.”

Hamas even placed two Israeli hostages in the care of the International Red Cross on Thursday afternoon.

As part of this ceasefire, Hamas has so far released more than 80 of the approximately 240 hostages it says Israel took in the October 7 attack on Israel. In return, Israel released 180 Palestinian prisoners.

Source: Blick