Remember when Abu Nashat and his family went back home to North Gaza and said they wouldn't do any real renovations, besides cleaning and tidying, till they knew for sure that the war was over? Pretty soon after that I noticed they'd installed a new front door. Not just a wooden door - a secure iron door. And they bought a lot of new kitchenware. And posh schoolbags for the kids. That's when I realised how shocked Gazans were going to be when the war restarted. And the war was always going to restart because the demands of both sides for the 2nd stage were directly opposed. Anyone who told you otherwise is not a good news source and should be ignored from now on. But Hamas sold Gazans the usual story of victory. It was more difficult to swallow this time, because of all the destruction, but they had hope. They were proud of being steadfast. They felt their resilience in the face of such hardship had paid off. They poopooed Trump's ideas of relocation, although on a personal level, large percentages want to leave. So Gazans conveniently forgot that Israel was still demanding the release of all the hostages and for Hamas to get out of Gaza, things Hamas would not accept. And they didn't realise that Israel wouldn't accept Hamas' demand for a full return to October 6 conditions. So yesterday, when the war restarted they were feeling really shocked and depressed and hopeless. #TheGazaYouDontSee Links in 1st comment
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