国际英语新闻：Gaza border tensions may lead to serious conflicts

Following Hamas' military takeover of Gaza in 2007, Israel argues that the organization is the de facto government of the coastal region and as such is responsible for all rockets fired from it, regardless of whether it was carried out by members of Hamas or any other group.

"Hamas is the government that governs Gaza and is the most powerful group in it," Shurab said, adding that they are capable of controlling the other groups and preventing them from launching rockets.

However, this does not mean that Hamas is interested in doing so. Shurab believes that Hamas cannot be seen as denying the other groups of their rights to military action, otherwise it will be perceived as having given up armed resistance.

Shlomo Brom, a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University and director of its program on Israel-Palestinian relations, told Xinhua that so far the two parties are not interested in a major new conflict.

But Brom warned that in such situations there is always a risk of miscalculation by one of the parties that may force the other to react strongly, leading to the possibility of an escalation that cannot be controlled.

"I think that Hamas is in strong control of Gaza. If they are interested, they may not be capable of preventing 100 percent of the operations against Israel but it will be very close to 100 percent," Brom said.

Asked if there's a possibility for the parties to defuse the tension, Brom argues that if "Hamas reins in the organizations that are sending different projectiles to Israel, then the tension will disappear."

However, according to Shurab, this is more easily said than done as Hamas needs to maintain its position within Palestinian society.

"The dilemma of this escalation is that Israel wants to send a message to Hamas that they will not allow for any show of force from Hamas or any other Palestinian resistance group," Shurab said, "meanwhile, Hamas wants to be assured that its option of resistance is still alive."