I’m still hearing about hostage release talks, but the reported red line positions of both Hamas and Israel seem just as far apart as ever. Hamas wants to survive and stay in power and Israel wants them gone. It doesn’t seem to me that there is much room for negotiations.
In the north, Hezbollah fired 120m mortars at an Israeli city. At least 2 of the projectiles failed to explode. Disposal experts are afraid that the mortar rounds might contain white phosphorus (WP). WP is legal for use in making smoke screens, but is banned for use against targets where civilians are present. I am not certain that the results of testing will be made public.
In Gaza the first public demonstration against Hamas took place yesterday. Israel hasn’t found any organization willing to take control of the civil administration in Gaza. Without a group committed to doing so, at least temporarily, most observers think that Hamas would just return and take over again. But there is a lot of unrest and anti-Hamas feeling there. It just doesn’t have an organization to focus it.
The much heralded deal for Israel to provide medical supplies for the hostages in return for giving similar supplies to Palestinians at a 1000 to 1 ratio got through the first steps. Trucks carried the materials into Gaza from Egypt. The Red Cross was able to confirm that. But what happened next was not in the script. The Red Cross was also supposed to confirm that the supplies actually reached the hostages. Hamas agreed to that. But the trucks were overrun by mobs on the Gaza side. Some aid was stolen. The rest was commandeered (defended?) by Hamas terrorists and there is no word about what happened to it. We know it didn’t reach the hostages, and we know it was not delivered to any hospital, none of it. Hamas may be hoarding it or selling it for a profit. This sort of behavior is why Israel is so reluctant to trust in Hamas abiding by any other agreement.
Wetherhorn 