Yihyah Sinwar managed to get himself appointed as successor to Ismail Haniya. To be fair, it may not have been what he really wanted. But the job makes him THE leader of Hamas. CNN managed to garner some comments from Gaza residents about the event. It appears that Sinwar is getting about a 50% approval rating (if the polling id to be believed) and many Palestinians are worried that his appointment will delay a cease-fire. The US, Qatar, and Egypt are all pressing Israel and Hamas to formally accept the last draft agreement that was given to the negotiators.
At the same time, Iran and Hezbollah are being pushed to settle for a low scale response to the assassination of the terrorist leaders in Beirut and Tehran. Iran is not revealing anything about its plans. But the stream of cargo planes bringing what is reported to be advanced air defense weaponry continues. Nasrallah has contented himself with vague threats about timing while promising that there will be an attack. Some Israelis joke about this, saying they receive similar promises from repairmen they have called. The better side of this charade is that there are no immediate attacks and some units of the IDF are able to continue to search for (and locate) additional underground tunnels. Maybe one of them will turn out to be Sinwar’s den, or a hostage prison.
Wetherhorn 