Academic Paper: The War of Stones of Baked Clay 2012 and its Impact on the Hamas Movement (Arabic)

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Al-Zaytouna Centre for Studies and Consultations has published an academic paper in Arabic entitled “The War of Stones of Baked Clay 2012 and its Impact on the Hamas Movement,” by Shu‘a‘ Jalal Nayef Kamamji.

In his paper, Kamamji analyses the War of Stones of Baked Clay (dubbed by the Israelis Pillar of Defense), discusses its strategic and moral importance to the Gaza Strip (GS) in general, and Hamas in particular, and details its causes, course of events, and the ceasefire agreement.

It shows how much this war strengthened Hamas’ political and military position and developed its military performance, and what were the political gains it achieved on the Palestinian and international levels. It discusses the Egyptian role and the impact of the Arab Spring on the course of both battle and negotiations.

Kamamji pointed out that the al-Aqsa Intifadah in 2000 was an important milestone to the Palestinian people, as it marked the beginning of armed and organized military action, which gradually evolved to resemble small armies that adopt the guerrilla warfare strategy, thus forcing the Israeli army to withdraw from GS. In return, Israel imposed a harsh siege on GS, which prompted the resistance to carry out many resistance operations. There have been many confrontations, wars, Israeli incursions and killings of many symbols of the resistance. The assassination of the senior commander of the al-Qassam Brigades, Ahmad al-Ja‘bari, was the spark that ignited the war of Stones Baked Clay in 2012.

The author compares between several aspects of al-Furqan Battle/ Operation Cast Lead 2008/2009 and the war of Stones of Baked Clay: the nature of the battle, the enemy’s strategy, its duration, the number of casualties, and how it was ended. He concludes that the 2012 war has strengthened the position of Hamas and the Palestinian resistance, which witnessed the development of the military power and the tunnels weapon, imposing a balance of deterrence. It also strengthened Hamas’s political positions, where the world views it now as a resistance force on its own land. These changes were also due to the visits of the politicians and diplomats to GS, and the US and Egyptian mediation to stop this war that reached a ceasefire agreement under the auspices of Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi. The latter’s role was pivotal in this war, where his cooperation was not limited to denunciation and condemnation, but also took realistic and practical steps in the interest of the Palestine issue.

The paper concludes that the 2012 war was a milestone for Palestinian resistance, and had an impact at the local, regional and international levels. For Egypt restored its regional role, Hamas entrenched its role in the Palestinian political map, and the war also opened up new opportunities for Hamas at the regional and international levels. The movement managed the battle within planned strategies, and the truce indicated a decline in Israel’s regional status in the region, and a change in the positions of central states towards Tel Aviv, such as Egypt and Turkey. The war made Israel defend the notion of its existence, and highlighted the further decline of US influence.