The IDF was bracing for riots along the Gaza-Israel border on Friday, as some 15,000 demonstrators – a larger number than in recent weeks – were expected to gather to protest the suspension of Qatari cash transfers earmarked for civilian functionaries' wages.
Friday's protests could also be more violent than those of the past few weeks and security officials in the Gaza-surrounding communities were preparing for a barrage of cross-border incendiary devices. Some defense officials, however, believed violence levels would remain stable and the IDF therefore did not enhance its deployment along the frontier.
Earlier this week Israel asked Qatar to delay its monthly disbursement of $15 million to the Gaza Strip after a rocket was fired from the coastal enclave at Ashkelon, on Israel's southern coast, overnight Sunday.
It still wasn't clear if the funds would be transferred next week, a Palestinian official told Israel Hayom.
"Israel sent a message to Qatar that it would not allow the money transfer to Gaza, because Hamas was not honoring the cease-fire understandings and permitting incendiary balloons and rocket fire," the official said.
Qatar began making the monthly money transfers to Gaza last year as a way of mitigating the ongoing humanitarian crisis the residents of Gaza are enduring.
According to understandings reached with Egypt and Israel, Doha will transfer a total of $90 million in aid funds to Gaza.
Meanwhile, Egyptian intelligence officials visited the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave on Thursday to meet with the terrorist organization's political bureau chief, Ismail Haniyeh, and other Hamas officials.
A senior Hamas official told Palestinian news outlets that the Egyptian delegation's objective was to supervise the border protests and prevent an escalation with Israel.
Arab media outlets reported that a senior Egyptian intelligence official visited Israel, prior to being joined by the aforementioned delegation in Gaza, to discuss the expected border violence and possible fallout with his Israeli counterparts.
A report in the London-based pan-Arab daily Al-Araby Al-Jadeed said Israeli defense officials had asked Egypt to open the Rafah border crossing with Gaza in both directions to avoid "strangling" the Strip, which would likely increase the chances of an escalation.
On Tuesday, Egypt blocked Palestinians from entering the country from Gaza after Palestinian Authority personnel left the Rafah crossing and Hamas officers took their place.
Human rights groups say Rafah has been the sole exit point from Gaza for an estimated 95% of its population of 2 million.
PA employees were deployed to Gaza's border crossings with Israel and Egypt in 2017, a move that largely opened up Rafah for two-way traffic, after Egyptian mediation led to a Palestinian reconciliation deal that has since faltered.
The PA announced its pullout from Rafah on Sunday, accusing Hamas of undermining its operations and detaining some of its workers.
