Arms and the man

摘要

After three of the quietest weeks that the 15-month intifada has known, violence has exploded again in Israel and the occupied territories. On January 9th two Hamas guerrillas killed four Israeli soldiers, and were then killed themselves, at an army base south of the Gaza strip. In immediate retaliation, Israel destroyed about 40 homes in Rafah refugee camp in Gaza, making hundreds homeless. The Hamas attack marked a serious breach in the ceasefire declared by Yasser Arafat on December 16th. Before it, only one Israeli had been killed (as against 44 in the first two weeks of December) though the Israeli army had killed 21 Palestinians, 11 of them children. Hamas had declared a moratorium on all armed operations in Israel. But tensions have been simmering.