Palestinians attacked an Israeli patrol this morning ina cross-border raid, killing one soldier and wounding two others. As the body controlling Gaza, Hamas bears direct responsibility for violating the ceasefire and for the consequences of this action.
For further information and analysis, see the Christian Science Monitor.
Much has been made of Hamas’s use of tunnels to smuggle arms and fighters into the Gaza Strip. They also used these tunnels to shoot Qassam rockets and hide from the IDF. The following, from Newsweek (emphasis added):
“They [the Israelis] were claiming there are tunnels under here,” she said. Hamas fighters use tunnels, often short ones that are little more than bunkers, to pop out and launch attacks and then get back in, hiding from Israel’s ubiquitous surveillance drones, reemerging in a house or backyard as an unarmed civilian. “There aren’t any tunnels around here, we are not resistance,” she said. Yet not more than 20 feet away from Najah, there was just such a tunnel, which Israeli troops had unearthed. Right in the middle of the road, it had a convincingly camouflaged roof that matched the rest of the road. Inside it was shored up with timbers and concrete.
In similar news, the Associated Press reports today that Palestinians are reopening their smuggling tunnels, some of which were damaged during the recent operation. While smuggling Iranian weapons may not have restarted, this may be a sign of things to come.
A report in today’s Corriere della Sera (in Italian) profiles some Gaza residents who say Hamas used some strong arm tactics to keep them in harm’s way. For example, Hamas gunmen forced residents to stay at home while they fired at Israeli troops (rather than telling the civilians to run away). You can read an English-language summary in Haaretz.
Bret Stephens, in the weekend’s Wall Street Journal (subscription required), analyzes the results of Operation “Cast Lead” in the wake of the recent Israeli ceasefire and troop withdrawal. Israel, he says, has learned a great deal from these past three weeks–but so has Hamas. And while Israel hopes for peace, it’s not clear that Hamas shares that feeling–and peace can’t come about in that environment.
An excerpt:
All wars eventually end. The question most Israelis are asking is whether this one has merely gone on vacation.
So why are the top echelons of Israel’s political and military establishment delighted by the war’s result? Long answer: They think that Israel has re-established a reputation for invincibility tarnished in the 2006 war with Hezbollah; that they bloodied and humiliated Hamas while taking few casualties; that they called overdue international attention to the tunnels Hamas uses to smuggle its arsenal; and, with the unilateral cease-fire, that they put the onus to end the violence squarely back on Hamas’s shoulders.
Haaretz reports today on the disclosure of footage from the al-Arabiyya satellite network, in which one of its reporters talks about what it felt when Hamas launched a Grad missile from right under her window. The video below (in Arabic) shows her reaction. Apparently, she didn’t realize the camera was rolling.
Haaretz reports:
Footage of a presenter on the Arabic language television station Al-Arabiya apparently confirms that Hamas fired at least one rocket from close to a building used by journalists during the 22-day conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The video below shows Hamas members throwing Fatah forces off the rooftop of a Gaza building–presumably to their deaths, or at least to a horrible fate.
Please beware, as the content of the video below is quite graphic, and can be disturbing to some.
Thomas Friedman has a well-reasoned piece in today’s New York Times that evaluates the current operations in a different light from many of the other articles we’ve seen. (Specifically differing, as he notes, in his analysis of the 2006 war in Lebanon.) The result: some interesting ideas for how to proceed.
An excerpt:
Israel de facto recognizes Hamas’s right to rule Gaza and to provide for the well-being and security of the people of Gaza — which was actually Hamas’s original campaign message, not rocketing Israel. And, in return, Hamas has to signal a willingness to assume responsibility for a lasting cease-fire and to abandon efforts to change the strategic equation with Israel by deploying longer and longer range rockets. That’s the only deal. Let’s give it a try.
Consul General had an interview with the Huffington Post last week and gave a good description of the goings-on. He also cites some facts and figures, about which we have gotten a number of good questions.
A sample:
The United Nations estimates that 25 percent of Palestinian casualties in the present incursion are civilian. Shariv said that as of this Wednesday morning, the IDF estimated the proportion of Palestinian civilians among those killed in the current incursion was “closer to 12 to 13 percent” and emphasized that most of those killed were being used as human shields by Hamas, which wages war from inside schools, hospitals and United Nations facilities.
He added, “When they hit [Israeli] civilians, there’s celebration. When we hit [Palestinian] civilians, there’s an investigation.”
Well, an op-ed in today’s Washington Post puts it quite well. “There are no shortcuts to peace that bypass security.”
That’s what Israel has been saying for the longest time, and it’s the key ingredient of any future agreement. Since the current operations were caused a continued erosion of Israeli security by Hamas, it only follows that Israel’s confidence in a halt to rockets will be necessary to end the operation.
And a responsible Palestinian security service, like that suggested in the article, is certainly an important ingredient.
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