"Surgical strike" which killed seven other people and injured over 15 others who just happened to be there? God save us all from a murderous surgeon like that if we ever need an operation.

You'd think, when the target is a blind man in a wheelchair on a route that he regularly took, that they could have been a wee bit more "surgical" than that.

I cannot believe that in any sense this was intended as a way of "weakening" Hamas. And I cannot believe that the Israeli believed it either. The object was to strengthen Hamas in relation to the PLF, and destroy any chance of a peaceful settlement in one with the famous "Road Map". The hope is to inflame the situation, and ensure reprisals, both in Israel and elsewhere.

I gather that both the Israeli Interior Minister and the Israeli Minister of Justice were opposed to this assassination. They were outvoted.