WHAT'S VICTORY GOT TO DO WITH IT?:

Sound And Fury In Gaza: On the ground, it's hard to see a path to victory (Rod Nordland, 1/16/09, Newsweek)

If Hamas is getting bombed into submission, it doesn't much show. As the bedraggled old bus crosses from Egypt into the Gaza Strip, Ghazi Hamad meets it at the Rafah Gate. Spokesman for the Palestinian government and formerly an aide to the Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, Hamad is proud to identify himself as a Hamas official. Is he worried about the sort of "F-16 assassinations" that Israel has been handing out? He rolls his eyes skyward and shrugs: "Whatever happens, happens." The group of men at the entrance to the Red Crescent Hospital here in Khan Younis, further north, is quiet and even-tempered; the hospital is so full there isn't even room to shelter a visiting journalist. Only after questioning does it become clear that the gathered men have just lost their homes to air strikes. "Yesterday they destroyed my house," says Hamis Odeh, a driver, "and today I have joined Hamas for the first time."

The calmness of Gaza under fire is striking, almost as if they had expected this and prepared for it long ago. There are no armed Palestinians visible in the streets, but nor are people staying off them. Most places, there's no electricity; but when night falls the lights twinkle on from a thousand small generators. Hamas military spokesmen had openly boasted that they used the previous, six-month-long ceasefire well, preparing underground bunkers and secret tunnels. Gaza's civilians too have been busy, stockpiling food in their homes and fuel for their generators. "Look here," says Hassan (who prefers not to be identified further in case a missile were to find him), pulling back a curtain in his living room; behind it are suitcases, already packed with his family's most precious possessions, warm clothes and emergency food. "If the Israelis come, we can leave on a moment's notice," he says. He is unemotional about it. "Where we will go, who knows, but we are ready."