Mohammed al-Emadi, director of a Gaza reconstruction committee set up by Qatar's ministry of foreign affairs, said on Tuesday that Hamas and Israel were engaged in indirect talks over multiple issues concerning the conflict, and reached a tacit understating to keep their military confrontation at low-intensity and avoid a full-scale war.
Asked by Al-Jazeera if the weekend flareup indicated a major confrontation, he said, "This is a sensitive question, but what you have here is a controlled and carefully measured confrontation between both sides." He explained, "Last week Israel bombed 60 or more Hamas installations and locations but no Hamas members were killed. It is clear that Hamas evacuated their installations and Israel waited until Hamas sites were empty. In recent years. Hamas has developed a new deterrent strategy which if Israel strikes or attacked Gaza, Hamas will have a counter response against Israel with rockets. However, according to this tacit understanding, Israel strikes areas or locations that belonged to Hamas without a deliberate attempt to kill people or Hamas operatives. Hamas does the same against Israeli targets."