On the morning of Aug. 5, just five minutes before the cease-fire in the Gaza Strip was scheduled to begin, Hamas fired a heavy barrage of rockets at Israeli cities. An Indian television crew from NDTV documented from its hotel window how Hamas militants set up a launcher in the heart of a residential area with hotels, and the moments immediately after the rocket was fired. The reporter, Sreenivasan Jain, noted that the footage was only released after the crew left the Gaza Strip out of fear of Hamas' response.
Soon after the rockets were fired and the cease-fire went into effect, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri emerged out of his tunnel to deliver his triumphant announcement: “The most obvious result of the campaign [in Gaza] was the destruction of Israeli deterrence.” It is safe to assume that Abu Zuhri and the other leaders and commanders of Hamas, who have spent the past month hiding in bunkers, haven’t yet had a chance to look hundreds of thousands of Gaza residents squarely in the eye. Once they get used to the sunlight again, they should conduct a lengthy tour of the Gaza Strip. While out and about they can ask themselves — and all the local residents displaced from their homes — whether it was worth it.