Even the Israeli government is aware that the war is moving into a new phase. Not only are reserve units being selected for release from combat, but also even some of the civilian population evacuated from the outer ring of towns around Gaza are being asked to return to their homes. It should be made clear that the towns mentioned are not those that bore the brunt of the Hamas attack nearly three months ago. Those towns suffered severe casualties to their populations and similar damage and destruction to their homes and other structures. The towns mentioned today are a few kilometers further away from the fence. The residents had been evacuated to put them out of range of Hamas fire. The number of Hamas rockets launched, or perhaps, more correctly, the number of attempted rocket launches by Hamas, has steadily decreased. The government feels that the people can return home without being exposed to undue risk. Some regional services, like schools, and garbage collection, will also be re-instituted.
On the ground inside Gaza the operations of the IDF are also shifting. There are a couple of pockets that remain with Hamas terrorists inside. The Hamas top leadership has not been captured. And, obviously, there are still a large number of hostages that have not been freed. The IDF is still giving the border crossing area from Egypt a wide berth. The subject of how to establish some new body to control that area, replacing the former Hamas civil servants and UNRWA, is already being discussed by representatives from Israel, Egypt, The US, and Saudi Arabia. They are not all sitting together. Some of the talks are only bi-lateral, and others may involve other countries or agencies. What is important is that the subject is already being looked at. From what I heard, they are even including the problems of bribery and smuggling that have proven difficult for the Egyptians to keep in check.
IDF operations are continuing to scour for tunnels, shafts, and hidden Hamas resources. Every day new locations are discovered containing munitions and other Hamas material. If there are terrorists at these locations, they are either captured, or , as the IDF euphemistically puts it, ‘neutralized’. This sort of searching and cleansing is likely to continue for at least two more months, if not longer.
Wetherhorn 