The focus of attention of the last week has been in Europe with the NATO meetings, President Trump's trip to the UK and today's summit with Putin in Helsinki. Far away from that news, however, there was a lot of important events that unfolded in the Middle East.
One hot spot that deserves attention is the Israeli border with Gaza (and the Hamas terrorists). For the last three months, Hamas has held weekly "protests" at the border. The protesters tried to tear down the border fence and enter Israel to attack nearby inhabitants. The Hamas people threw grenades, Molotov cocktails and otherwise attacked the border fence while the "protesters" were used to provide cover for the attacks. Israeli troops stopped the Hamas actions. Although Hamas started using burning kites and balloons to try to set the fields of nearby Israeli farms on fire, the protests got smaller and smaller until lately no one is there except for Hamas troops dressed as civilians. The kite fires, however, continued.
Early last week, Israel stopped allowing importation of gasoline and other fuel oil from Israel so that it would not be available for use on the kites. This was a logical step, but it was still a big blow to Hamas. The terrorists kite attacks had managed to cause new hardships for the Gaza residents.
The Hamas response came pretty quickly. Over the weekend, Hamas launched over 200 missiles at Israeli territory and carried out more kite attacks. There were injuries in Israel but no fatalities. In response, the Israeli air force launched attacks on Hamas installations across Gaza.
There was a rapidly brokered cease fire agreement. Hamas agreed there would be no more missile attacks, while Israel said it would stop the air attacks. Within 12 hours, however, Hamas launched new missile attacks as well as additional kite attacks.
It seems that the best way to view Hamas is "once a terrorist, always a terrorist."
One hot spot that deserves attention is the Israeli border with Gaza (and the Hamas terrorists). For the last three months, Hamas has held weekly "protests" at the border. The protesters tried to tear down the border fence and enter Israel to attack nearby inhabitants. The Hamas people threw grenades, Molotov cocktails and otherwise attacked the border fence while the "protesters" were used to provide cover for the attacks. Israeli troops stopped the Hamas actions. Although Hamas started using burning kites and balloons to try to set the fields of nearby Israeli farms on fire, the protests got smaller and smaller until lately no one is there except for Hamas troops dressed as civilians. The kite fires, however, continued.
Early last week, Israel stopped allowing importation of gasoline and other fuel oil from Israel so that it would not be available for use on the kites. This was a logical step, but it was still a big blow to Hamas. The terrorists kite attacks had managed to cause new hardships for the Gaza residents.
The Hamas response came pretty quickly. Over the weekend, Hamas launched over 200 missiles at Israeli territory and carried out more kite attacks. There were injuries in Israel but no fatalities. In response, the Israeli air force launched attacks on Hamas installations across Gaza.
There was a rapidly brokered cease fire agreement. Hamas agreed there would be no more missile attacks, while Israel said it would stop the air attacks. Within 12 hours, however, Hamas launched new missile attacks as well as additional kite attacks.
It seems that the best way to view Hamas is "once a terrorist, always a terrorist."
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