The unending cycle of violence stems from Hamas's refusal to recognize Israel's right to exist and commitment to destroy the Jewish state. Since Hamas won control of the Palestinian Authority parliament in elections in 2006, they have ratcheted up the level of attacks against Israel, in large part through the use of short range missiles. Hamas had fired 30 rockets at Israel by Tuesday afternoon, the Israeli military said. Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida has warned Israel that the militants will continue rocket attacks "for many months" and vowed to strike deeper into Israeli territory. True to their threat, a Hamas rocket landed in the town of Gadera, Israel, about 23 miles north of the Gaza border. Yesterday, a rocket hit a kindergarten in the Israeli city of Ashdod, about 16 miles north of Gaza.
In response to being shelled from Gaza, Israel launched first an air offensive, then as a last resort, followed with sending troupes into the territories. Hamas understands they do not have the equipment to stand toe to toe against the high-tech weaponry of Israel: so instead they look for opportunities to inflict damage, wait for a response; then point to their dead and demand that the world stop Israel. While Hamas is listed as a terrorist organization, by Israel, the United States and the EU; they understand that the Palestinians are seen as the underdogs, and that pressure will be brought down on to Israel. Hamas recognizes that the more horrific the images, the greater the force placed on Israel to pull back. It is for that reason that Hamas intentionally places woman and children in the center of the armed conflict. Place rocket launchers inside a school and fire at the Israelis, if they don't fire back you win, if they do fire back you win. It's a great strategy, as long as you don't care about the deaths of your own children.
Yet again today we saw the same plan used , a spokesman for the Israeli military today said Hamas militants positioned in a school, had fired mortar shells at Israeli forces, prompting return fire.Palestinian sources said 44 were killed in the attack.
U.N. Relief and Works Agency Director John Ging said most of the casualties were outside the school in the Jabalya refugee camp.
"It's a very built-up area, so of course it was entirely inevitable that if artillery shells landed in that area there would be a high number of casualties," he said at a U.N. briefing from Gaza City. A short time later, another artillery shell struck inside a second U.N. school in Jabalya, but Ging said the boys' prep school was empty at the time
Israel continued airstrikes targeting the homes of people linked to Hamas, An overnight airstrike hit the Jabalya home of Imad Siam, one of the leaders of Hamas' military wing according to Hamas security sources. Israel claimed Tuesday to have killed 130 Hamas fighters since beginning a ground offensive at dusk Saturday. An Israeli soldier was killed Tuesday morning in northern Gaza City, the Israeli military said, bringing to six the number of Israeli forces who have died in Gaza since Israel launched its ground incursion.
.Arab foreign ministers met at the United Nations to work up a U.N. draft resolution calling for Israel to stop its offensive in Gaza and for Hamas, which rules the territory, to cease firing rockets at the Jewish state. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas plans to present a resolution drafted by the Arab League to the U.N. Security Council. The resolution will call for Israel to stop its offensive in Gaza and for Hamas to cease firing rockets at the Jewish state.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday told French President Nicolas Sarkozy that Israel wanted a "full solution" to the conflict, not just a cease-fire that allowed Hamas to fortify itself, Olmert spokesman Mark Regev said.
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, stated that any cease-fire in the Gaza conflict will require "clear and definitive action" to halt the smuggling of weapons and money into the Hamas-ruled Palestinian territory.
"If there is strong action on that front, so that Israel feels it has achieved something -- namely the end of the smuggling of weapons and finance to Hamas -- then I think it is possible to resolve this reasonably quickly," Blair told CNN.
"If that doesn't happen, if we're not in that position, then obviously it's going to go on."
The true tragedy is that it is the most innocent, that often pay the highest price. The threat of Hamas rockets in the south of Israel is taken so seriously that almost all the schools within rocket range of Gaza have locked their gates and told children not to come to school. According to the Israeli government, 300,000 students are affected.
Children accounted for one-third of the casualties at Gaza's main hospital, and now Hamas and their media are making them the face of the attacks.
"When the Jews bomb us when we are asleep, [Hassanin] says 'We get scared,' " a translator says.
Hassanin is one boy from Gaza being interviewed by an anchor on Hamas TV about the attacks.
When we will grow up, we will bomb them back," said Hassanin on Hamas TV
The children have seen terrible images of tragedy: their friends injured or killed and bloodied bodies in the streets.They are images Hassanin says he will never forget. He'll keep them stored away until he's old enough to do something about it.It's a sentiment psychiatrists in Gaza say could be responsible a frightening future -- that the violence children are witnessing will sow the seeds for future violence.
Gaby Schrieber, an Israeli psychiatrist at Barzilai Hospital, says Israeli children get excellent help and structured support -- something he fears children in Gaza won't be receiving.
And if they don't get the support they need or hope for a better future, Schrieber worries what will happen to them.
"Where is hope for them, and how can they structure their future in their minds?" Schrieber said. "They can become extremists."
After ten days of the latest bloodshed, .
So the unending cycle of violence continues to plunge Gaza deeper into a hell where all Hope has vanished
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