A new hostage exchange deal still looks far away. But Hamas is still not completely eliminated. They even managed to launch another rocket yesterday. The estimated cost was about 450 dead terrorists in dozens of little firefights. They still have a lot of tunnels, and probably close to 3000 men they can field as combatants. And so far, the IDF hasn’t made a ground move on Rafah. There’s still a little time to go before Ramadan. Does Sinwar think he can pull off a West Bank uprising? From my viewpoint his chances don’t look good.
A lot of people were killed and injured in food riots yesterday. The Hamas version of the event blames Israel. Is that what the Arab street believes? I doubt it. It looks to me like more and more Palestinians are looking to Israeli broadcasts in Arabic to hear about what is really happening. The revelation that wealthy Gazans can purchase an entry into Egypt for about $5000 ($2500 for a child) was actually embarrassing for Egypt. The Egyptian foreign minister promised to shut down that escape route, (He might even actually do it,) but the exposure was damaging and that cannot be undone. I haven’t seen anyone asking whether Hamas leaders or hostages have been taken out that way, yet. Is the question too sensitive?
Closer to home, the grandson of one of my wife’s acquaintances was killed and the grandnephew of neighbors seriously wounded. The War is still there, with all the horrors thereunto appertaining. There seems to be a feeling that the IDF won’t move into Lebanon until after Ramadan, but the question seems to be when, not if.
Wetherhorn 