In the past 24 hours militants in Gaza have continued to fire rockets into Israel included long range missiles to targets including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem which has never come under rocket fire before. However all of these missiles have either been intercepted by the Iron Dome system or have missed their targets meaning that there have been no fatalities. Israel has massively increased it's Ariel attacks on Gaza and have significantly widened their range of targets to include Hamas' political headquarters, the Cabinet building containing the offices of the Prime Minister, the police headquarters and 5 electricity sub-stations the loss of which leaves around 400,000 people without power. Israel has put a further 45,000 reservists on stand-by and regular army units are massed on the Gaza border said to be ready to move in at one hours notice.
This all means that Israel has now switched the focus of the operation away from degrading militant groups ability to fire rockets and onto attempting to decapitate Hamas' civilian infrastructure. If Israel is simply trying to ensure it's security this is entirely the wrong thing to do because without Hamas Gaza will plunge into anarchy and Israel will come under more frequent attack. However with things like the blockade, the with-holding of tax revenues and heavy restrictions being placed on the Gaza police force this has always been Israels intention - cause chaos in Gaza and then use that chaos as an excuse to treat the Palestinians ever more badly.
Most worryingly of all neighbouring Egypt has seen a horrific accident in which a school bus carrying children aged between 4 and 8 was struck by a train killing 47 children and 2 adults on the bus. It won't be long until people start blaming the crash on either Israel or the Egyptian government leading to public outrage that will pile pressure on the Egyptian government to intervene in Gaza. Something they must resist.
16:20 on 17/11/12
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