The truce stipulated between the leaders of Hamas and Israel lasted much less than the scheduled 72 hours: the reason for the end of the ceasefire was announced by Netanyahu around noon, when an Israeli soldier was kidnapped by Hamas militiamen. News instead of a few minutes ago, still to be confirmed, is that of the killing of the soldier, Hadar Godin, together with another Israeli soldier.
In these moments, meanwhile, the Israeli military initiative has resumed more insistently than before. The kidnapping of the soldier triggered the violent reaction of Netanyahu's troops: in particular, the Rafah area is completely under siege, and the International Committee of the Red Cross is trying to save all the families.
Since the beginning of the war, Palestinian deaths have reached 1.420, while the number of wounded has exceeded 8.200. The victims on Netanyahu's land are lower and refer exclusively to military deaths, which with today's two killings rise to 61.
The Israeli Premier is determined to complete the action taken almost a month ago, called Protective Edge. The main targets of this ground and air military advance are the clandestine tunnels built by Hamas affiliates to connect the Gaza Strip to Israel and the West Bank. The destruction of these strategic passageways is the fundamental aim of the Israeli war enterprise. Witnessing its importance are the victims of the Israeli army, all killed by the Hamas soldiers thanks to raids through those tunnels.
The high mortality rate of this war is mainly due to two factors, one technical-military, the other genuinely geographical. The first consists of the greater war preparation of Netanyahu's army obviously due to American subsidies thanks to which numerous important armaments have been strengthened. Above all, the anti-missile systems thanks to which Israel intercepts all missiles launched from the strip towards sensitive Israeli targets. Furthermore, also thanks to the same funding mentioned above, the Israeli administration has decided to build an anti-bomb bunker room in all homes, thanks to which Israeli families, after the warning of the siren, have from 15 to 110 seconds to lock oneself inside – depending on the distance from the Strip.
Hamas, which militarily and politically controls the area of the Gaza Strip, has decided to invest its economic resources - in any case lower than those of Israel due to certainly weaker partners - in armaments, mortars and missiles above all, but also in the construction of the tunnels. The population of Gaza, therefore, does not have the same number of security measures that guarantee the Israelis greater peace of mind in this conflict. The only chance for the Palestinians of Gaza to save themselves is to hear in time the warning explosion called roof-knocking: a system devised by the Palestinian army thanks to which a small and delayed-explosion device is dropped which it has the purpose of warning the inhabitants of a house by "knocking" on the roofs before a slight explosion.
The geographical motivation is easy to tell. The strip of Gaza has an area of 360 square km distributed over a length of about 40 km by just over 10 wide, which host 1.800.000 people for a population of almost 5.000 people per square kilometre. Bombarding such a highly populated strip of land is tantamount to almost certain slaughter. Israel has a much more extensive plan and can also count on the fact that the attacks come exclusively from the south-west area of the country, while the Gaza strip is surrounded by enemy territory for 3/4 of its borders.
Meanwhile comes the condemnation, arrived a few minutes ago, by the UN against Israel for having interrupted the truce. A Palestinian delegation - which includes among others Hamas, Fatah, Islamic Jihad and the People's Party - will go to Cairo to discuss the next stages of the conflict after the cancellation of the meeting between the mediator Egypt, Israel and Hamas.
