October 30, 2007: Hamas refuses to do anything to stop the terrorists firing rockets into southern Israel, or mortar shells at Israeli troops guarding the security fence around Gaza. Israel is trying several things to change the mind of Hamas. Israel has cut the supply of fuel to Gaza by 30 percent. Further efforts along these lines are opposed, in Israel and the European Union, as being collective punishment, and thus unfair. Collective punishment (holding an entire family, clan, village, etc, responsible for the acts of their members) is an ancient practice, and has only been replaced by individual punishment in situations where there was a government in control of the environment the guilty individuals were from. Such is not the case in Gaza, although Israeli intelligence believes that the Gaza Palestinians would be largely docile if Israeli troops moved back in and tool control. Many Israelis are not eager to test that assessment, but they also fear the growing arsenal of rockets Hamas is building in Gaza. In addition to firing about a dozen rockets a week into Israel, there are daily attacks on Israeli troops guarding the fence keeping Palestinian terrorists out of Israel. One or two Palestinian attackers are killed each day because of these attacks. Meanwhile, while Fatah says, in English and Hebrew, that it wants to negotiate a peace deal with Israel, it continues to broadcast Arab language television shows which declare that Palestinians must control all of Israel, and eventually will. This "two messages" policy has been in force for decades.

October 29, 2007: In the West Bank, troops and police raided several locations and arrested ten Palestinians on terrorism charges.

October 28, 2007: The Syrians have quickly destroyed all evidence of the nuclear weapons development facility that Israeli warplanes bombed on September 6th. The attack was a major embarrassment for Syria. It put a spotlight on their long relationship with North Korea, revealed a secret nuclear weapons program, and demonstrated that Syrian air defenses, recently updated with new Russian equipment, were very inadequate. Syria would like to forget the whole thing happened.

October 26, 2007: Israeli troops raided a terrorist safe house in Gaza, killing six Palestinian gunmen. Two soldiers were wounded.

October 25, 2007: Egyptian police found half a ton of TNT explosives in a cave in Sinai. The stuff was believed headed for Gaza, via tunnels under the border. While these tunnels are constantly found by police, new ones are always being dug. In the last month, at least three Hamas members have died during cave-ins of tunnels being dug.

October 24, 2007: In northern Gaza, another two Palestinian boys (age 12 and 13), were killed by Israeli artillery. The kids were trying to remove launchers used for three rockets terrorists had just launched. The rockets are fired with a timer, because Israeli radar spots the rockets right after launch, issues a warning to Israeli towns, and plots the launching position. This data is sent to Israeli artillery units, which fire on the launchers, to destroy them. Palestinian kids try to get to the launchers first. If they can get the launchers away before the shells arrive, they get paid, either by the terrorists, or metal scrap dealers. If the kids get hit, the Palestinians make the most of it by publicizing yet another Israeli atrocity. In southern Gaza, two Palestinian terrorist were killed by a team of Israeli commandoes, who had entered Gaza for that purpose.