Israel is fighting now in the southern part of the Gaza strip, but essentially with one hand tied behind her back. The US government is asking the IDF to make greater efforts to avoid civilian casualties. This plays into the hands of the Hamas propagandists who make even greater efforts to put out “humanitarian crisis” stories and pictures. The Media, like France 24, Hamas (usually uncritically) and this is what everybody sees. Of course they know the game is “rigged”, but it’s the only game in town. Meanwhile, Hamas tries to send more civilians into places where the IDF is expected to attack in order to create more civilian casualties.
Hamas is a known terrorist organization, designated as such by many countries. But they have been able to get other groups to help them organize big demonstrations on the streets of a lot of cities. These demonstrations call for a cease-fire that keeps Hamas in power in Gaza (and may even strengthen them) so that they can go on and replay this scenario again in the near future. This script has been repeated several times in the past. One of the worst parts of all this is that other governments and organizations are then called upon to donate funds for rebuilding Gaza. Hamas takes those funds to rebuild their arsenals and fortifications, pay their terrorist soldiers, and even build luxury homes for their own senior leaders. The suffering civilians whose pictures are exploited by Hamas rarely see any benefits. The water and sewage system in Gaza has, as best I can determine, never received any Hamas funds for repairing war damage. It’s always been foreign funding that goes through Hamas hands that is used. The same is true regarding electricity. The Gazan generator can provide only a few hours a day when it is functional. The rest came from Egypt or Israel. When Israel did provide electricity, Hamas didn’t pay for it. Qatari funds did.
A lot of humanitarian aid is currently being sent into Gaza via the Rafah crossing. Hamas directs it after it leaves Egypt. They have not been able to handle distribution very well. That has resulted in cases where internal Gazan refugees have seized some trucks in order to take the food for themselves. So far, Hamas has not been able to spare troops to reassert total control. But they did have troops dressed up in pristine uniforms and coached on how to behave when they filmed the release of hostages last week.
Wetherhorn 