I may have to change the title of the blog entry this goes into. Hamas is threatening to delay release of hostages because of what they say is violations of the cease fire agreement by Israel. Not surprisingly, Israel says they have been meticulously abiding by the terms, and it is Hamas who is in violation. The biggest item is allowing Gazans to return to areas in the north of the strip. The route that is permitted is manned by an American contractor. Earlier, it was manned by IDF soldiers (prior to when Gazans were supposed to be able to cross). During that time Hamas organized large groups of ‘civilians ‘and sent them (encouraged them?) to go north. When those people approached IDF positions the soldiers fired; first over their heads, and when that did not stop them, directly at the approaching groups (specifically aiming to wound, rather than kill). This is apparently the Israeli ‘violation’ that Hamas is complaining about. The miserable physical condition of the last 3 released hostages might have contributed to the US reaction.
US President Trump responded to the Hamas threat by saying that ALL Hamas hostages need to be released by Saturday, and if they are not, there will be consequences.
Bottom line; the entire cease-fire agreement may be headed for collapse {or maybe Hamas is just playing the petulant child and testing where the line that cannot be crossed really is).
In the Northern Front, Israel is asking for another extension of time, beyond the 18 Feb time currently in effect, in order to give the Lebanese Army more time to carry out the tasks it was assigned. So far, the Lebanese Army has been paying lip service to those actions, while, de facto, cooperating with Hezbollah terrorists that are still south of the Litani River (and actually never withdrew to the north).
Finally, the US is reporting about more and more cases of USAID being complicit in terrorism and funding terrorist activities in both cash and kind.
Wetherhorn 