”I lost trust in Hamas a long time ago, but now I’ve also lost trust in all the statements made by the Cabinet and the government. … [The residents of the communities close to the Gaza Strip] will not return to their homes until the prime minister and all the ministers can show me that there is an agreement assuring that this will not happen again,” said Chaim Yellin, head of the Eshkol Regional Council. He made this statement during an interview he gave to Israeli TV Channel 2 News on Aug. 26 as yet another cease-fire went into effect.
Yellin made these remarks while visiting kibbutz Nirim, where a mortar fell, killing kibbutz members Ze'ev Etzion and Shahar Melamed, just minutes before the recess in fighting. He sounded angry, exhausted and frustrated all at once. His statement was an authentic and accurate expression of what seems to be an unprecedented crisis of trust. On the one hand are the residents of the south and their local leaders, who have all suffered from incessant bombardments, and on the other is the government, particularly Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, who oversaw this campaign in the Gaza Strip and led the country to the current agreement.