Israel and Hamas: Escalating to Nowhere, Yet Again

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  By Anthony H. Cordesman
  Jul 31, 2014
  
  
  As of July 31st, the fighting between Israel and Hamas was in its 24th day. Israel was calling up 16,000 more troops and its ground forces were seeking to destroy at least 32 major tunnel complexes. Israeli aircraft had struck at 3,577 targets in Gaza and caused 1,328 Palestinian deaths.  Hamas had launched some 2,753 rockets and missiles and caused 59 Israeli deaths.  There was no clear way to cost the fighting on either side, but Israel had clearly spent hundreds of millions of dollars, and Gaza had suffered massive losses in housing and infrastructure, seen several hundred thousand people displaced, and had an already crippled economy shattered. The cost in anger, bitterness, and hatred on both sides was incalculable.

http://csis.org/publication/israel-and-hamas-escalating-nowhere-yet-again