In the fighting between Israel and Hamas over which side can hold out more than the other and who will appear most acceptable to the ceasefire first, the main issue is the cost, according to a report in the Israeli Jerusalem Post.
The newspaper pointed out at the beginning of its report that the Israeli Iron Dome missiles cost very high compared to the cost of Hamas missiles.
But Israeli officials, according to the Jerusalem Post, have already reached the conclusion that the Iron Dome is worth the money spent on it and that the most reasonable comparison is the cost Israel would pay in lives and destruction of property if there were no Iron Dome.
However, the newspaper wonders about the real cost that Hamas bears to continue firing the rockets, saying: "Does this differ depending on the cost of the long-range missiles that can hit Tel Aviv and central Israel compared to the short-range missiles that do not exceed the Gaza borders?"
The newspaper reported that of the nearly 3,000 rockets fired during the past week towards Israel - out of 14,000 rockets believed to be possessed by Hamas - there were only a few hundred long-range rockets.
It attributed to Israeli missile experts Uzi Rubin and Tal Inbar that the difference in cost was not large enough to rein in Hamas.
According to the experts, the fact that some launchers have multiple barrels and are capable of launching between 4 and 9 missiles simultaneously does not affect that estimate.
Rubin, considered one of the fathers of Israeli missile defense, says that even "Hamas's best missiles are relatively simple, inexpensive and not known for their wide range."
Reports estimate that the main Hamas short-range missile, called the Qassam missile, costs between $ 300 and $ 800 each.
There is little public information, according to the two experts, about the cost of Hamas's long-range missiles such as the R-160, M-302D and M302-B, as well as the J-80, M-75 and Fajr-3. And Fajr 5, and the second generation M-75.
Tal Inbar, a former head of Israel's Fisher Institute's Space Research Center, estimates it will cost thousands of dollars per rocket - or two to three times more than the shortest range.
This, according to the newspaper, is still a far cry from the cost of the Iron Dome interceptors, which are estimated at between 50 thousand and 100 thousand dollars each.
Inbar believes that a large part of the cost is not in the relatively cheap materials that go into manufacturing missiles, but rather in the costs of smuggling materials that cannot be manufactured locally through Sinai and Sudan.
He adds that Hamas does not have the necessary electronic capabilities to steal money electronically, as North Korea does, and it does not have other sources of income such as Hezbollah.
However, both Inbar and Robin claim that Iran delivered or paid for most of the missiles, which means that renewing them does not cost Hamas anything, they say.
And about the extent of Hamas' ability to continue firing rockets towards Tel Aviv and central Israel after it has already used hundreds of its long-range missiles, the two experts point out that even Israeli intelligence, at best, has incomplete estimates.
Rubin says the IDF did not know, for example, that Hamas had a missile that could reach the Eilat area until it was actually used.
The two experts add that they are confident that Hamas has a lot of long-range missiles to fire at Tel Aviv and central Israel, and the proof is that at the end of all the recent Gaza wars, they were able to launch some rockets wherever they wanted.
Accordingly, these two experts believe that Hamas could continue some kind of regular rocket fire at Tel Aviv and central Israel for weeks.