ConflictBarometer_2016
ConflictBarometer_2016
ConflictBarometer_2016
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MIDDLE EAST AND MAGHREB<br />
quently attacked Shiite areas across the country as well as<br />
military checkpoints and government buildings. According to<br />
Iraqi officials, IS destroyed two Sunni mosques on January 3,<br />
in a predominantly Shiite area in the city of Hillah, Babil Governorate,<br />
to incite sectarian tensions. On January 10, the Iraqi<br />
Army killed nine Shiite militia fighters with an aviation drone<br />
on PMF near Tikrit, Salahuddin Governorate, due to mistaken<br />
coordinates. On June 1, fighters of the PMF group Kataeb<br />
Hezbollah kidnapped 900 civilians and executed at least 50<br />
in the village of Saqlawiyah near the city of Fallujah, al-Anbar<br />
Governorate. After the Iraqi army and Shiite militias forced IS<br />
out of Fallujah on June 26, fears of sectarian violence rose in<br />
the city. On July 31, Human Rights Watch urged the Iraqi government<br />
to exclude Shiite militias from the planned recapture<br />
of Mosul, Ninawa Governorate, from IS, due to earlier human<br />
right abuses against the Sunni population. On November 26,<br />
the Iraqi parliament approved a bill formalizing the status of<br />
Shiite military groups such as the PMF as regular members of<br />
the Iraqi Army. Subsequently, the government claimed to effectively<br />
control the groups. mas<br />
ISRAEL (HAMAS ET AL. / PALESTINIAN<br />
TERRITORIES)<br />
Intensity: 3 | Change: | Start: 1988<br />
Conflict parties:<br />
Conflict items:<br />
Hamas et al. vs. government<br />
secession,<br />
resources<br />
system/ideology,<br />
178<br />
The violent crisis over secession and resources between<br />
Hamas and other Islamist and Salafist militant groups operating<br />
from the Gaza Strip, on the one hand, and the Israeli government,<br />
on the other, continued. Conflict-related deaths decreased.<br />
According to OCHA, ten Gazans and two West Bank<br />
Palestinians were killed in the course of the conflict compared<br />
to at least 53 fatalities in 2015.<br />
Throughout the year, clashes between Israeli Defense Forces<br />
(IDF) and Gazan protesters near the Israeli border left five<br />
dead and 156 Gazans wounded. Both in the Access Restricted<br />
Areas (ARA) near the border fence and on the Gaza Sea, IDF<br />
regularly fired warning shots at farmers, fishermen and other<br />
Palestinians. On January 13, IDF killed one Palestinian and<br />
injured three others, who they accused of planning an attack<br />
on Israel, in a targeted attack with artillery fire near Beit Lahia,<br />
Gaza. In the first half of September, a Palestinian youth died<br />
after being hit by a tear gas canister shot by IDF during confrontations<br />
near the Gaza border fence.<br />
Different militant groups fired rockets from Gaza towards Israeli<br />
territory on various occasions. While Hamas denied responsibility<br />
for the attacks, as in previous years IDF declared<br />
that Hamas was responsible for all attacks against Israel from<br />
Gaza. Unlike Hamas, Salafist groups claimed responsibility<br />
for rocket attacks aimed at Sderot and other locations in Israel's<br />
Southern District in the course of the year. Consequently,<br />
in 16 similar events, Israeli Air Force (IAF) reacted to<br />
rocket attacks with airstrikes against training facilities of the<br />
al-Qassam-Brigades, Hamas' military wing, and other Hamas<br />
structures. According to Salafist representatives, their rockets<br />
were intended to prompt Israeli retaliation against Hamas<br />
in order to reduce Hamas' repression against Salafist groups<br />
in Gaza [->Israel (Hamas – Salafist groups)]. For instance,<br />
on March 12, four rockets were fired from Gaza towards Israel's<br />
Southern District by unknown attackers. Shortly after,<br />
IAF conducted airstrikes against Hamas structures, killing two<br />
civilians and injuring another in Beit Lahia. Between May 3<br />
and May 8, IAF carried out airstrikes in Gaza, after militant<br />
groups had fired mortar rounds at IDF units searching for tunnels<br />
near the border fence in northern Gaza. The airstrikes<br />
killed one civilian, injured four others, and damaged several<br />
vehicles and buildings. The Gaza-based Salafist militant<br />
group Ajnad Bait al-Maqdis fired rockets towards southern Israel,<br />
targeting the Israeli military base close to Nahal Oz, on<br />
May 25.<br />
Violence between Hamas as well as Palestinians and IDF also<br />
took place outside of Gaza. The Hamas member Abdul-Hamid<br />
Abu Srour carried out a bus bombing in Jerusalem's Talpiot<br />
neighborhood that injured 21 people on April 18. He died<br />
from his injuries two days later. On May 18, IDF detained<br />
24 Palestinians during raids in the city of Jenin, West Bank,<br />
among them senior Hamas official and former Palestinian<br />
minister Wasfi Qabaha as well as two suspected Hamas militants.<br />
On July 27, IDF shot a Hamas fighter dead during a raid<br />
near Hebron, West Bank [->Israel (PNA / Palestinian Territories)].<br />
On December 15, In the Tunisian city of Sfax, Sfax Governorate,<br />
Mossad allegedly assassinated the aeronautical engineer<br />
and al-Qassam member Mohammed Alzoari, who manufactured<br />
drones for the militant arm.<br />
As in previous years, Hamas continued building new tunnel<br />
systems below the border fence, attempting to bypass Israel<br />
and Egypt's blockade of Gaza and using it for smuggling<br />
weapons. Since Israel accused Hamas of redirecting cement<br />
deliveries for tunnel-building, Israel halted private cement<br />
deliveries into the Gaza Strip between April 3 and May 24.<br />
On September 8, Israel declared that it had begun building an<br />
underground wall in order to prevent the construction of further<br />
Hamas tunnels. Israel resumed diplomatic relations with<br />
Turkey on June 26 that had been strained following the Gaza<br />
flotilla raid in 2010. Hamas officially thanked Turkey for easing<br />
the Israeli blockade of Gaza on June 27, since the agreement<br />
allowed Turkey to resume aid deliveries to the Gaza<br />
Strip where it continued to support Hamas as a branch of the<br />
Muslim Brotherhood. hna<br />
ISRAEL (HEZBOLLAH)<br />
Intensity: 3 | Change: | Start: 1982<br />
Conflict parties:<br />
Conflict items:<br />
Hezbollah vs. government<br />
territory, system/ideology<br />
The violent crisis over ideology and territorial sovereignty<br />
over the Shebaa farms between Israel and the Lebanese<br />
Hezbollah continued. Due to Hezbollah's ongoing involvement<br />
in the Syrian civil war in support of President Bashar<br />
al-Assad [->Syria (opposition)], the conflict's territorial focal<br />
point shifted to Syria.<br />
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated on February<br />
28 that Israel would not tolerate the supply of advanced
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