Hamas Contained: The Rise and Pacification of Palestinian Resistance

by Tareq Baconi

After the escalation of hostilities in January and in the context of this persistent chokehold, Hamas sent a suicide bomber into Israel on February 4. It was the first suicide mission since 2004, killing a seventy-three-year-old woman in the southern town of Dimona.110 Rocket fire also continued, resulting in the death of the first Israeli in nine months on February 27.111 This prompted Israel to unleash “Operation Hot Winter,” an expansive air and ground attack on Gaza that killed 110 Palestinians in five days.112 The European Union denounced Israel’s “disproportionate” response and policies of “collective punishment,” while analysts interpreted this operation to be a dry run for a future invasion.113 Hamas emerged relatively unscathed, boasting of victory as it maintained rocket fire.114 “Palestinians have emerged victorious from the five-day war waged by the Zionist occupation on the Gaza Strip.