Netanyahu defends arming Palestinian clans accused of ties with jihadist groups

[Eko]

3. I'm not sure what to make of this.

The US Militaries COIN or counter insurgency policy is to build support with locals to help police against the insurgents, in this case hamas. Antoher part of COIN is to take an area, create security, give aid and help create infrastructure to help the local populace. They have done some of that with the aid station but they need to follow up with the rest. So it seems that at least in that regard they are finally using the COIN strategy a little bit. I am not against Israel going against hamas, I am against them because of the huge loss of life their policies have created with very little to gain. Very easily this could come back to bite them but to me it is a much better move than bombing Gaza and killing more civilians. None of this forgives them for stopping all the other aid that was coming in at all though.