3 More Hamas Targets Killed

Yesterday, Said Siyam, the Hamas Interior Minister as well as the Interior Ministry's Security Director, Saleh Abu Sharkh, and the local leader of the Hamas militia, Mahmoud Abu Watfah, were killed in an Israeli air strike. Needless to say, Hamas has rejected Israeli cease-fire terms, and Hamas leaders are in Qatar at an Arab League meeting, regardless of its seeming lack of quorum. Reuters describes it, "Qatar has gone ahead with a broad consultative meeting that has attracted Hamas, the Iranian and Syrian presidents and Turkish officials." Arab nations are split over the meeting, and it appears several alternate Arab nation meetings are happening around the Middle East. Syria and Iran are continuing their calls for ties with Israel and the US to be severed, while the US and Israel are approaching a cease-fire agreement the would block arms shipments to Gaza. This is a very convenient arrangement. Hamas is saying, "No cease fire," which allows Israel to continue its military offensive while systematically shutting down any outside access to the Gaza Strip. Siege is one of the oldest tactics in the book, and in light of yesterday's high-ranking deaths, it is more obvious than ever that Israel is aiming at dismantling Hamas as an organization, not simply as hostile occupants of Gaza.