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In the 25th day today (Aug. 1) of the Israel-Hamas war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told the world his country will not stop bombarding the Hamas-held, sliver-sized territory of Gaza until all of the terrorists' estimated 50 tunnels are crushed into rubble.Netanyahu told his cabinet that to date the Israeli army has destroyed 32 tunnels, all built over the last five years with concrete, lumber and iron rebar materials initially provided to the Gaza residents by Israel to rebuild their homes and other structures.
Instead, says Netanyahu, Hamas is using the tunnels to surface onto Israeli land and kill unsuspecting area settlers. He told his cabinet this week he estimates the remainder of the tunnels may be demolished within 72 hours.
This is the fourth clash between Israel and Hamas since 2006. Cease-fires have ended the previous fighting. None of the previous fighting has gone on this long.
This time around, however, neither side has so far been willing to accept a mediated settlement. Six cease-fire proposals have been offered in the past two weeks by various mediators.
The problem is neither side trusts the mediators.
Hamas says it will only halt firing rockets once it receives guarantees that a seven-year-old Gaza border blockade by Israel and Egypt will be lifted. Hamas leaders vow they will never recognize Israel as an official Jewish state. Egypt hates Hamas and is siding with Israel this time around.
The fighting this year began July 8 and was intensified by July 17. A total of 86,000 Israeli reservists have been called up to date. Hamas has an estimated non-uniformed total military force of about 15,000 men and women.
Hamas is believed to have an estimated 5,000 heavy-duty rockets remaining in its original arsenal of 10,000 rockets. Iran, Turkey and Qatar are believed to be supplying Hamas with its war materials.
Although official casualty figures are open to speculation, the best educated guess to date by United Nations observers, Red Cross officials and reporters covering the fighting is that the kill list includes about 700 terrorists, 600 civilian Palestinians, 56 Israeli soldiers and three Israeli civilians.
Gaza is so small, it can barely be seen on a map of Israel. The estimated 144 square miles of land in Gaza is home to about 1.8 million Palestinians, believed to be the densest civilian population area in the world.
By comparison, Israel's total 2,741 square miles are a little larger than Delaware (1,954 square miles) and not quite as large as Connecticut (4,845 square miles). Israel's estimated population, including Arabs and Jews, is 7.9 million.
According to Wikipedia, Gaza, is a strip of Palestine land on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea that borders Egypt on the southwest for 11 kilometers (6.8 miles) and Israel on the east and north along a 51 kilometers (32 miles) border.
Gaza makes up part of the Palestinian territories which includes the West Bank. In 2012, the United Nations General Assembly provided Palestine non-Member Observer State status in the United Nations. That action has given Palestinians hope that they, too, some day, may be recognized, like Israel, as an official state.
Hamas was established in 1987. It has its origins in Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood movement, which had been active in the Gaza Strip since the 1950s and gained influence through a network of mosques and various charitable and social organizations.
In the 1980s, the Brotherhood emerged as a powerful political factor, challenging the influence of the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization). In 1987, the Brotherhood adopted a more nationalist and activist line under the name of Hamas.
During the 1990s and early 2000s, the organization conducted numerous suicide bombings and other attacks against Israel. That's the background for the current fighting.
Since 2007, the Gaza Strip has been governed by Hamas, claiming to be the representatives of the Palestinian National Authority and the Palestinian people. Nobody in Palestine has challenged their rule to date.
