Photo Credit: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash 90
Hamas boss Yahya Sinwar
In the past, the weeks following these ceasefires with Hamas terrorists have sometimes produced a shakeout of facts and information previously denied by Hamas.

Here are some examples:

May 2018: Hamas official: 50 of the 62 Gazans killed in border violence were our members
Salah Bardawil’s confirmation means number of acknowledged members of terror groups who died on Monday and Tuesday is now 53

August 2014: Hamas Admits To Kidnapping And Killing Israeli Teens
A senior Hamas leader has said the group carried out the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teens in the West Bank in June — the first time anyone from the Islamic militant group has said it was behind an attack that helped spark the current war in the Gaza Strip.

September 2014: Hamas Quietly Admits It Fired Rockets from Civilian Areas
The Gaza terrorist group offers that “mistakes were made” in its summer conflict with Israel.

November 2010: Hamas Admits 600-700 of Its Men Were Killed in Cast Lead
The military group had previously claimed only 49 militants died during Gaza war, though Israel put the figure at 709.

The ceasefire last week may have already produced an admission from Hamas.

Raf Sanchez, foreign correspondent for NBC News, tweeted last Friday:

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It’s not at all clear what basis the IDF has for making this claim.

But then again, this is not the first time that Hamas has openly admitted to misjudging Israel’s reaction.
Haaretz reports that in 2011, Hamas fired a barrage of mortars into the Negev:

Yesterday’s mortar barrage on the western Negev is the most extensive operation by Hamas since Operation Cast Lead ended in January 2009. The group has been involved in a few incidents with the Israel Defense Forces since then, but usually on a smaller scale, and it has rarely claimed responsibility.

Yesterday, Hamas publicly announced that its people were behind the latest incident. They said the reason was the Israel Air Force’s attack Wednesday on the Hamas training camp in the ruins of the settlement of Netzarim in which two people were killed. That attack had been precipitated by a Qassam strike a few hours earlier near Sderot.

So, in case you were not keeping score:
A Qassam strike on Sderot started things off.
Israel responded with an attack on a Hamas training camp.
Hamas responded to that with a barrage aimed at the Negev.
But Hamas says it has an excuse: Israel broke the rules.
Not the rules of the Geneva Convention.
Not the rules of International Humanitarian Law
Not the rules written by the ICRC or of the UN.
These were unwritten rules
Hamas whined that:

Israel had exceeded the unwritten rules of the game. The Qassam had been fired by a marginal Palestinian group, and the accepted response would have been a bombing of empty Hamas offices or an escape tunnel without casualties.

Hamas did not expect Israel to hit back hard.

Apparently, they expected a proportionate response.

Hamas’s surprise is reminiscent of a BBC report of Nasrallah’s apology for ordering the kidnapping of 2 Israeli soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev — leading to the 2006 Lebanon War:

“Had we known that the kidnapping of the soldiers would have led to this, we would definitely not have done it,” he said in an interview on Lebanese TV.

It is not clear what Lebanon thought of the apology.
Apparently, there are times when even terrorists, like Hamas and Hezbollah, find a need to apologize to the citizens they hold hostage.
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Bennett Ruda
Bennett Ruda has been blogging at daledamos.blogspot.com since 2003. He also contributes to the Elder of Ziyon website. Bennet lives in Elizabeth, New Jersey, with his wife and two children