JERUSALEM

TOP AIDES TO Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are said have told their boss that the drip-feed of Palestinian dead coming out of Gaza as a result of Israel’s campaign to destroy Hamas there, is likely to create more Arab fury than it can ever destroy.

“Unless he wants to kill them all,” said an unnamed source close to the Prime Minister’s inner circle. ”Is that really what he wants?”

Men and women old enough to remember the massacres of Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon in 1982, say they feel like they are watching a repeat run of something claiming to be original on a slowly deteriorating streaming service.

“We ended up stuck in Lebanon for almost twenty years,” recalls Ruty, who lost a brother there. “My husband, his brother, three of my cousins – God, my Uncle Benny who fought in ’56 – they all served. And what did it achieve? Hezbollah are at our throats. My son is in Gaza now. I find I don’t care how many Hamas we kill, I just care about my son.”

Shimon, who lost a leg near the Suez Canal in 1973, says that even if Israel wins this time, the problem will probably not go away. “The Palestinians are a fixture, like the sand in the desert. They cannot be ignored. Will not be ignored. I hate Hamas. But if the price of destroying them is to create an even bigger Arab rage twenty years from now, then we have to find another way. Because one day in the future, if this continues, their rage could – no, will – overwhelm us.”