Israel vs. Hamas

On December 27, 2008, Israel launched a major military campaign dubbed "Operation Cast Lead" against the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip in order to counter Palestinian rocket fire and more broadly, to significantly weaken all aspects of Hamas rule in Gaza. On January 3, 2009, Israel began a ground offensive into Gaza intended to eliminate Hamas''s willingness or capacity to launch rockets at Israeli towns and cities. As of January 14, Israeli bombings and ground forces had reportedly killed over 1,000 Palestinians, while 13 Israelis had been killed by Palestinian rockets. Some Israeli observers have suggested that neither toppling the Hamas regime nor permanently ending all rocket attacks is a realistic goal. Nevertheless, by temporarily disabling Hamas''s military capacity and slowing its rearmament, Israel could ease the frequency and intensity of Hamas attacks in the months ahead as it prepares to deploy new, more sophisticated anti-rocket defence systems. Bringing an end to the conflict and constructing a sustainable order in its aftermath are major challenges with implications for the Gaza Strip''s population and infrastructure, Israel''s security, and the future Palestinian polity, including the role of Hamas. This book considers the changing fortunes of the Palestinian movement, HAMAS, and the recent outcomes of Israeli strategies aimed against this group. This book consists of public domain documents which have been located, gathered, combined, reformatted, and enhanced with a subject index, selectively edited and bound to provide easy access.