Tomorrow, Saturday, will mark three weeks since the beginning of the war in Gaza, currently known as Operation Cast Lead. Though it is hard to give a geo-political interim appraisal, the numbers thus far tell their own story.
The Israel Air Force has bombed a total of some 1,200 targets in Gaza, including more than 300 in the past week. Among them are tunnels under the Philadelphi Route between southern Gaza and Egypt, terrorist cells, mosques and other munitions storehouses, homes of top terrorist leaders, Kassam manufacturing sites, and Hamas military installations.
Though it was originally estimated that Hamas might fire some 250 rockets a day at Israel, it has in fact fired slightly less than 600 in the nearly three weeks of war – a daily average of fewer than 30. Nearly 80 of the rockets were fired at distances of more than 40 kilometers (25 miles).
Thirteen Israelis have been killed in the fighting, including three civilians. Nine soldiers were killed during the ground offensive, which began two weeks ago, and the others were felled by Hamas rockets and shells fired into Israel.
In the first week of fighting alone, some 400 trucks carrying more than 6,500 tons of food, medicine and medical supplies crossed into