Recent weeks have given rise to new concerns over the possibility of yet another military escalation in the Gaza Strip. The fear is that internal tensions between Hamas and local Salafi jihadist groups in the Strip may drag both Israel and Hamas into a round of conflict that both parties would much rather avoid. Yet along with attention to the security situation in Gaza, the broader political and geostrategic context, one where Gaza continues to occupy an especially central and crucial role, must be considered.

Since the war in the summer of 2014 between Israel and Hamas and its dire humanitarian and economic impact on the Strip, there has been much momentum to support reconstruction of the area’s civilian and economic infrastructures. Moreover, reconstruction, particularly against the backdrop of Hamas’ relative weakness, is increasingly thought by Western actors relevant to the political process as possible leverage for a long term truce between Hamas and Israel and hence a means to secure calm in the Israeli-Palestinian arena as a whole.

Interestingly, this focus on Gaza resembles the line of thought that dominated the discourse on the political process in the immediate aftermath of the signing of the Oslo accords, with the “Gaza [and Jericho] first” idea (the Cairo Agreement) – agreed upon in May 1994 by Israel and the newly-established Palestinian Authority. There are of course considerable differences between then and now, including in terms of both sides’ trust in the ability to reach a comprehensive peace agreement and the cohesiveness of the Palestinian political sphere. Yet Gaza once again is increasingly considered to be a place where an Israeli-Palestinian political-territorial dialogue could and perhaps should start.

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