This past week there was relative quiet after the most recent round of escalation in the Gaza Strip. Monday, the day of Israel’s general elections, passed without exceptional incident. A general closure was imposed on Judea and Samaria and lifted Tuesday morning. With the exception of Molotov cocktails and stones thrown at Israeli vehicles driving on the roads, no exceptional events were recorded in Judea and Samaria.

A delegation of senior Hamas figures headed by Isma’il Haniyeh, head of Hamas’ political bureau, visited Russia. They met with the Russian foreign minister and senior officials of the Russian foreign ministry. The issues discussed were the Trump plan, the internal Palestinian reconciliation and contacts for an arrangement held under the shadow of the rounds of escalation in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Ziyad al-Nakhalah received a formal invitation to visit Russia, and he is planning to accept.

An IDF force identified a vehicle in the northern Golan Heights whose passengers had apparently been involved in an attempted sniper attack against targets in Israel. The force attack the vehicle (IDF spokesman, March 1, 2020). In ITIC assessment the vehicle belonged to Hezbollah operatives, part of the effort to a military infrastructure in the Golan Heights (the “Golan Portfolio,” revealed by the IDF spokesman about a year ago).

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