In any case, even if Hamas didn’t know a thing about the bomb, its lack of response against the perpetrators proves the group’s willingness to tolerate such attacks and even welcome them.

After all, there is a clear working order in Gaza. Seeking to preserve its rule, Hamas avoids carrying out terrorist attacks in order to prevent Israeli military responses. But all the while, Hamas continues to dig terror tunnels and improve its missile arsenal.

Hamas leaves the dirty work of perpetrating terror attacks to the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad, whose command center is in Damascus. Islamic Jihad has a score to settle with Israel ever since an Israeli strike demolished one of its tunnels last year and killed some of its high-ranking commanders. So far, Islamic Jihad has not been able to mount a satisfactory revenge attack, but it will undoubtedly continue to try.

A number of terror groups also operate in the Gaza Strip that refuse to accept Hamas’ authority. In Israel, we call these groups “rogue.” In addition, terror cells affiliated with the Islamic State group in Sinai are also active there. Hamas tolerates the activities of all these groups and does nothing to counter them.

The border incident on Saturday proves yet again what we learned at the Lebanese front during the 2006 Second Lebanon War: When you tolerate provocations along a border for too long — such as protesters “just” trying to breach a border fence or “just” throwing some rocks at Israeli soldiers — terror attacks are never too far off.

Israel and Hamas are not interested in escalation. It seems that for the time being, there is no better alternative to the Hamas rule in Gaza, at least from Israel’s perspective. That is why calm is sure to be restored along the border in the near future.

But in the absence of a fundamental solution to the Gaza issue, the IDF will find it hard to maintain this calm for long. This serious incident should prompt Israel to look for a better solution than to trust Hamas to ensure calm along Israel’s southern border.