I reported on January 17th that there were reports that Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar had escaped Gaza by faking injuries, forging medical papers and taking an ambulance from Gaza to Egypt during one of the three-hour "lulls" during the fighting.
Since then, the Gazans have been wondering where exactly Zahar has disappeared to. Some of the rumors say that he actually was injured. There are reports that he shaved his beard and is staying at his mother's house in Al Arish.
Hamas has denied that he was injured, but cannot seem to produce him. And since perception is everything, Gazans now almost certainly look at him as a coward who ran away from his people.
He was featured prominently, and apparently prophetically, in my PaHamas video.
