A. TUNNEL, OUR GAZA EDITOR

SO ISRAEL IS withdrawing troops from southern Gaza, and talking to Hamas.

That’s Hamas 1 Israel 0.

Six months into its brutal offensive in Gaza, Israel still hasn’t crushed and destroyed Hamas, its highly-publicized stated aims. It has destroyed and crushed just about everything else in Gaza, especially thousands of civilian lives, but not Hamas. And Hamas still holds scores of Israeli hostages. And Israel still has not found them.

The rules of the game are: If Israel doesn’t destroy and crush Hamas, it loses; if Hamas stays in being, no matter what its state, it wins.

Over to you Mr Netanyahu. Your time is running out.