The mooted hostage deal doesn’t look likely. Hamas had been holding out for a cease fire with guarantees that they would remain in power. It seems they thought that other countries would not allow Israel to move against Rafah, and international pressure would make the Israelis accept Hamas demands. That situation may be changing. The American restraint was reported as being based on worries about excessive civilian casualties. Israel withdrew fro Khan Yunis and set up a big tent city near there. Now, Rafah residents are being encouraged to leave Rafah and head for those tents. The capacity of the tents is over ¾ million people.
The Israeli gate leading to Rafah where humanitarian aid has been sent ever since the Israelis rebuilt it (it was destroyed by Hamas last October) was targeted by Hamas again. Hamas rockets and/or mortar fire hit the crossing point forcing Israel to shut down aid convoys going through it. Even Arab commentators noticed the contradiction between forcing the closure and the claims that there isn’t enough aid getting through. (Has Hamas been lying about the aid crisis all along?)
The Israeli government also finally actually shut down Al-Jazeera in Israel. This step was approved about 2 weeks ago, but not implemented because Al-Jazeera belongs to Qatar (one of the mediators in the hostage negotiations) and there was still hope the talks would lead to a deal. I, for one, will miss being able to see their reporting (as biased as it was). I used it to balance Israeli sources when following up on reports.
Wetherhorn 