The cycle of violence continues.

Four IDF soldiers killed near Gaza
Hamas claims responsibility for pre-dawn raid

Four Israeli soldiers were killed yesterday and one was seriously wounded in the worst attack on Israel in almost a month when two Palestinian gunmen raided an army outpost near Kibbutz Kerem Shalom, close to the Gaza Strip before dawn. The attackers were killed in the ensuing gun battle.
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In response to the raid, Israel seized and destroyed two Palestinian stations close to the site of the shooting in Area B, technically under Israeli security control. Many of the Palestinian police at the post, anticipating a reprisal, had left the post. Those remaining were ordered by Israeli soldiers to hand over their weapons before the posts were destroyed. Israeli sources said the destruction of the two posts was a "lesson" to the Palestinian security forces for not preventing the pre-dawn raid.

IDF digs up Gaza airport runway, closes Rafah- Khan Yunis road

Israel Retaliates Against Refugee Camp

The following is a must read.

Crumbling walls of Gaza - and Oslo
Ruined buildings, empty cafes and graffiti-covered walls greet visitors to the Gaza Strip. The building boom of the days before the intifada has come to a standstill and the unemployment rate is higher than ever.

The Erez checkpoint between the Gaza Strip and Israel is not busy in the way that it was in the days before the outbreak of the intifada, much less in the days before the period of the sieges and encirclements. The "safe transit route" between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank is not in operation. Apart from the 1,200 workers from Gaza who work in Israel, the families of prisoners held in Israel who visit their relatives under the auspices of the International Red Cross, and a handful of Gaza residents who, for humanitarian reasons, are granted transit permits by the IDF - the Erez checkpoint is closed to Palestinian traffic. More than a million inhabitants of Gaza are cut off from the world.

In the Gaza Strip, which is 30 kilometers long and about 10 kilometers wide, the population density is among the highest in the world. During the past year, it has been one of the places that has won the most extensive coverage in the world media. Many people around the globe know what is happening in Gaza. But the Israelis, who are deeply involved in what is happening there, know very little.
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There is one Israeli who does know a lot. Many of the articles I link to about Israel/Palestine are from Ha'aretz, an Israeli paper. One of the Ha'aretz writers is Amira Hass. She has written a remarkable book that I've been reading. In 1993 she was Ha'aretz's correspondent in the Gaza Strip. In order to cover it, she decided to make her home there and rented an apartment in Gaza City. This book, Drinking the Sea at Gaza : Days and Nights in a Land Under Siege, came out of her experience. This is a must read.

The Amazon Editorial Review:
In what is sure to be a controversial book, Israeli reporter Amira Hass offers a rare portrait of the Palestinians in Gaza. Very few journalists have lived in that troubled region; Jewish ones are rarer still. "To most Israelis," Hass writes, "my move seemed outlandish, even crazy, for they believed I was surely putting my life at risk." But Israelis desperately need to understand the plight of the Palestinian people, she writes, and few of them read the unvarnished truth in the Jerusalem press. This has made most of them ignorant of what goes on right next door, and inspired unduly "harsh" attitudes toward Gaza and its one million residents. Hass even quotes the late Yitzhak Rabin, who wished that Gaza "would just sink into the sea," shortly before he signed the Oslo Accords. Wishing away the problem, however, is no solution, and Hass delivers a detailed--and highly opinionated--diagnosis of what's wrong with Israeli policy toward Gaza. Strong supporters of Israeli will say that Hass is nothing but a mouthpiece for the Palestinians. Indeed, this book's subtitle could apply as much to Israel, surrounded by bitter enemies, as it does to Gaza. Yet it would be wrong to ignore Hass: the scene in Gaza is woefully unreported. The book is not likely to change many minds--this is one of those subjects where passions run deep and fierce. Those who already sympathize with Hass's pro-Palestinian views will find Drinking the Sea at Gaza an invigorating book. --John J. Miller