Free Republic

While much attention has been paid to the humanitarian relief enabled by the weeklong truce between Hamas and Israel, national security experts note that the pause may have given Hamas the opportunity to strengthen and resupply its forces for when hostilities resumed Friday. The concern was that Hamas would emerge strengthened so its forces could respond to Israel's devastating ground and aerial assault in northern Gaza, and potentially in southern Gaza, where many of the enclave's 2 million civilian residents are now located after heeding Israel's warnings to leave northern Gaza before Israeli forces attacked there. Those questions of whether...