The question has been asked, what does Hamas hope to gain from the conflict with Israel?  Does the raining of rockets onto Israeli sites do the trick?

IMO, it accomplishes just what it is intended to accomplish.  That is a violent reaction from Israel.  Knowing that Israel will react in a certain way sets up conditions to accomplish their goals.  They are:  1–to make more Palestinians suffer which in turn gives them a large pool of future recruits, 2–set up Hamas as the sole savior of the Palestinian people, 3–to focus world attention on the plight of Palestinians at the hands of Israel.

The sad part of all this is that it is the Palestinian people suffer the brunt of the Israeli reaction.  Just as it is sad that the Israeli civilians are the targets of the rockets.  All of that is unacceptable, civilians should never be made a tool of war.

copyright:  CHUQ/Info Ink

Israeli leaders will debate on Wednesday whether to order their armed forces to storm into the Gaza Strip’s urban centres, the planned culmination of a nearly two-week-old offensive, political sources said.

Escalating from a week-long air assault, Israeli troops and tanks invaded the Hamas-ruled territory on Saturday, clashing with Palestinian guerrillas but not advancing beyond the outskirts of the city of Gaza or other densely populated areas.

Israel called the initial ground sweep the “second stage” of the operation, without saying what could follow. The opacity helped spur a frenzy of international mediation to secure a truce under which Hamas would stop cross-border rocket fire

Israel and Hamas studied an Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday that won immediate backing from the United States and Europe, hours after Israeli shells killed 42 Palestinians at a U.N. school.

However, Israeli officials also said ministers would discuss a major escalation of their 12-day-old offensive that would push troops deep inside Gaza’s cities and refugee camps in their bid to end rocket salvoes into Israel by Islamist militants.
With Washington in a transition period ahead of the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama, France and its European partners, with backing from U.S. allies in the Arab world, have been pushing hard for Israel to cease fire.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice endorsed the Mubarak proposal and said a “sustainable” ceasefire should involve both closing off Hamas’s ability to rearm through tunnels from Egypt and easing the lives of the 1.5 million people of Gaza by reopening trade routes.

The civilian death toll in Gaza increased dramatically today, with reports of more than 40 Palestinians killed after missiles exploded outside a UN school where hundreds of people were sheltering from the continuing Israeli offensive.

Two Israeli tank shells struck the school in Jabaliya refugee camp, spraying shrapnel on people inside and outside the building, according to news agency reports.

A United Nations official in Gaza said the school was clearly marked with a UN flag and its location had been reported to Israeli authorities. John Ging, director of operations in Gaza for UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, said that three artillery shells landed at the perimeter of the school where 350 people were taking shelter. “Of course it was entirely inevitable if artillery shells landed in that area there would be a high number of casualties,” he said.

Asked whether there were Hamas militants in the area at the time of the attack, Ging said it was the scene of clashes “so there’s an intense military and militant activity in that area.” He said UN staff vetted Palestinians seeking shelter at their facilities to make sure militants were not taking advantage of them. “So far we’ve not had violations by militants of our facilities,” he said. Ging called for an independent investigation of the strikes near UN facilities.

Israel continues to insist that the bulk of those killed are Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters, although its claim to be going to extraordinary lengths to target only “terrorists” has been undermined by one of its own tanks firing on a building being used by Israeli troops, killing four.

The sharp spike in the number of civilian casualties came as Israeli troops and tanks moved into Gaza’s second largest city, Khan Younis, for the first time today, supported by intensive artillery strikes as the military pledged to press on with its attack.

Nine Israelis, including three civilians hit by rocket fire, have been killed in the conflict. At least five rockets fired from Gaza landed in Israel today, including one that hit the town of Gadera, 17 miles from Tel Aviv, police said. A three-year-old girl was wounded.