It wasn’t very clear from the beginning what the Israeli government and IDF actually wanted to achieve in the first place in Gaza. Punish Hamas for the three abducted and killed youths in the Westbank in which Hamas was apparently not involved, the tunnels, the rockets? And what has that to do with deliberately shelling hospitals, schools, UN shelters, neighborhoods and marketplaces? As usual, war propaganda was necessary to anyhow justify the unleashed war machinery leaving Gaza in rubble and, according to estimates by the UN, at least 1117 people killed, 926, or 83% civilians including 296 minors. Others have counted 1656 dead.

A new escalation of Operation Protective Edge may have been prevented when it became clear that the allegedly kidnapped captured Israeli soldier Hadar Goldin had actually been killed in action and never in Hamas custody, adding up to 64 IDF soldiers and 3 civilians on the other side.

To see the above video (which has apparently been removed from youtube but is anyway informative), click here. Thanks to Norman Finkelstein.