April 30,2008:
Hamas has expressed interest in a ceasefire, of six months or more. Hamas
explained this by referring to the Koran, where early in the history of Islam,
it was common to use such truces to build up your military strength, before
resuming the war, and winning. In Gaza, Hamas has imposed restrictions on
indoor public gatherings, in an effort to prevent rival Fatah from undertaking
political action of any sort.
Rocket and
mortar attacks into southern Israel continue, with one or two dozen rockets or
shells a day being fired. Hamas apparently has no interest in making peace with
Israel. Hamas internal propaganda continues to call for the destruction of
Israel, and points out that the support from Iran would make that possible once
Hamas was able to find a way to import large quantities of weapons and other
material from Iran. Hizbollah in Lebanon is the model Hamas uses for this.
Hamas believes it cannot lose and that time, and God, are on its side.
Israeli
intelligence officials warned that Palestinian terrorists are planning major
attacks for the May 8th celebration of the 60th
anniversary of the founding of Israel. The various Palestinian terror groups are
very unhappy with their inability to kill Israelis during the past few years.
Egypt has
discovered five more smuggling tunnels into Gaza, two of them being used to pump
fuel oil, via a hose, into Gaza. The Israelis are still restricting the flow of
vehicle and generator fuel (a third of Gaza electricity is generated locally),
but Hamas steals what it needs for its armed forces, from what is sent in.
Hamas is trying to force Egypt to allow fuel supplies to come in from Egypt,
but this would violate the peace treaty with Israel. Moreover, Egypt is nearly
as hostile to Hamas is Israel is. Hamas provides shelter for Islamic terrorists
who want to overthrow the Egyptian government.
April 29,
2008: Israel uses smaller missiles (like Hellfire) to limit civilian casualties
when terrorists are attacked in Gaza. But in a recent attack, a missile hit two
armed men in a residential area. The two terrorists died, but the explosion
also destroyed a nearby house, killing a mother and four children. Hamas blamed
Israel, but the Israelis showed a video from a UAV overhead, where after the
missile exploded, there was a larger secondary explosion, as the explosives the
terrorists were carrying exploded. Hamas claims that the video was faked. Hamas
trains its fighters to use civilians as human shields as much as possible, as
the Israelis get criticized for "war crimes" every time a Palestinian civilian
is killed by counter-terror operations.
April 25,
2008: A Palestinian attacked the entrance to an industrial zone along the West
Bank/Israel border, and killed two Israeli security guards. Several Palestinian
terror groups took credit for the attack.
April 24,
2008: The U.S. and Israel released data on what Syria was doing with the
nuclear research facility Israel bombed last September 6th. Video
was shown of the interior, and North Korean technicians could be seen. Israel
says the facility was a nuclear reactor that could produce enough plutonium for
one or two nuclear bombs a year. All this was done with North Korean
assistance.