by Stephen Lendman

Key Israeli objectives in keeping Gaza besieged and waging last summer's aggression include preventing Palestinian self-determination as well as Hamas/Fatah unity.

Israel doesn't want Hamas and likeminded groups destroyed. It wants them weakened, contained, isolated in the case of Gaza, and used as pretexts for occupation harshness.

It allies with takfiri terrorists to achieve its objectives - notably the Islamic State (IS). It supplies weapons. It treats its wounded in Israeli hospitals. Along with Washington, it uses Islamic terrorist elements as strategic assets. On Sunday, five car bombs were detonated simultaneously in central Gaza City - reportedly targeting Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Vehicles they owned were struck.

Graffiti on nearby walls read "Daesh" (the Islamic State designation). So far no group accepted responsibility. Was it an Israeli plot against both groups using proxy IS terrorists to do its dirty work?

Several injuries were reported, no known deaths. Hamas officials are investigating the incident. IS and fringe Salafi groups operate in Gaza - likely with Israeli support and encouragement.

They challenge Hamas authority. They hold extremist Islamic views. Since last summer, other explosions occurred.

While directly aiding IS terrorists, Netanyahu outrageously equated them with Hamas - calling them "branches of the same poisonous tree," polar opposite reality.

IS advocates strict Islamic caliphate rule under sharia law. Hamas is moderate by comparison. Its goal is ending Israel's occupation and establishing Palestinian statehood within June 1967 borders.

IS wants caliphate extremism in all Arab states. It's dependent on US, Saudi, Israeli, Turkish and other regional aid to continue its aggressive mission - seizing territory from sovereign countries, eliminating all nonbelievers.

Hamas has political and military wings. It's Palestine's democratically elected government. It's no terrorist organization as falsely claimed.

It wants peace and stability, not war and other forms of violence. It wants long denied Palestinian liberation - free at last from vicious Israeli control.

It doesn't support sharia law or persecute Gazan Christians. IS beheads or otherwise eliminates anyone considered apostates to their extremist Islamic views.

Whether Israel's dirty hands were behind Sunday's multiple Gaza bombings isn't known. It's typical of how it operates - including waging war on moderate Islam using IS and other takfiri terrorists.

Meanwhile, its officials falsely claimed Hamas planned multiple terrorist attacks against Israeli and Palestinian Authority targets. The nonexistent plot was allegedly foiled by arresting over 250 West Bank Hamas members and supporters - a thinly veiled scheme to strengthen Fatah, its officials working collaboratively with Israel for special benefits they derive.

It allegedly involved kidnapping Israeli officials, targeting vehicles on major West Bank roads, attacking IDF checkpoints and assassinating senior PA officials.

You can't make this stuff up. Obvious questions aren't addressed. Qui bono? What could Hamas possibly gain from conducting these type incidents - unable to change status quo conditions, risking another Gaza war?

Israel and longtime Fatah collaborators benefit greatly - at the expense of millions of Israelis (and many Palestinians) fooled to think they're now safer.

Hamas official Abdurahman Shadid said its West Bank members and supporters face a continuing "campaign of arrests" and persecution. Most detainees were "severely tortured" to force false confessions.

Israel's war on Palestine is unrelenting - including using Judas officials against their own people.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III".

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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