Israel's policy toward the Gaza Strip over the past three years has been guided by two different principles, resulting in inconsistencies and contradictions between the actions taken by the security establishment and the rhetoric heard from top officials. The first principle says that restricting the movement of civilians and suppressing economic activity in the Gaza Strip are legitimate and effective means of putting pressure on the Hamas regime and other armed groups in the Gaza Strip. This is the logic that guided the Gaza closure policy between 2007 and 2010, and it continues to be the basis for some of the restrictions on access between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and Israel, and for access restrictions used as punishment for rocket fire from the Gaza Strip (for example, reducing the fishing zone off Gaza's coast).
The counter-principle says that promoting economic stability in the Gaza Strip is in Israel's interest and that in order to do so Israel must distinguish between Gaza's civilian population on the one hand and the Hamas regime and other militant groups with which Israel is engaged in hostilities on the other.
Full Report
- 8 pages
http://www.gisha.org/UserFiles/File/publications/max-possible/THE-MAX-ENG-4-8-13.pdf
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