Israel, Hamas scale down conflict

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The stage was set this week for another spasm of violence between Hamas and Israel.

A provocative march was planned by far-right Israelis through Palestinian areas of Jerusalem, as it had been before the 11- day war last month. And Hamas threatened to respond with violence if the march took place, as it had in May.

But by Wednesday night, the likelihood of another full- blown air war had ebbed, at least for now.

The march went ahead, but it was scaled down and rerouted to avoid some of the most volatile parts of the city. Hamas responded, not with rockets this time but with incendiary balloons, causing dozens of fires in the countryside of southern Israel. When Israel fired back, it struck several small-bore targets.

No casualties were reported on either side.

The limited exchange suited both sides, allowing them to save face and project strength while avoiding an escalation that would benefit neither the new Israeli government, less than a week into its term, nor Hamas, which has barely begun a billion-dollar reconstruction effort in Gaza.

By firing incendiary balloons, Hamas could still project itself as a defender of Jerusalem, without eliciting a major military assault from Israel. A Hamas spokesman said that forcing Israel to reroute the march constituted a “success in imposing new rules of engagement with the enemy.”

And by firing back, albeit in a limited way, the new Israeli government could still present itself as a stronger bulwark against Hamas than the one it had replaced. The former prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, tended to ignore incendiary balloons, while the new government responded with airstrikes.

But behind the scenes, international mediators had received indications from both Israel and Hamas that neither was seeking to escalate the conflict further, a diplomat involved in the talks said Wednesday.

The bravado from both sides was, for now, largely for show, said Ghaith alOmari, a former Palestinian official who is now an analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a research group.

A deeper truce remains more elusive, with all parties yet to agree on a mechanism to deliver aid, money and reconstruction materials to rebuild Gaza.