Editorial
While this editorial was being written, the focus of events shifted from the Palestinian Territories to Lebanon, where an open war between Israel and Hezbollah (an Islamist Shi'a militant organization) was taking place on a very large scale comprising attacks from the sky, land and sea.
Two similar, successive events had proceded the massive flareup sparking fears of a regional war. The first was an attack by Palestinian militants (Hamas) on an Israeli military post. Two Israeli soldiers were killed and a third was wounded and abducted to Gaza where Hamas demanded a prisoner exchange for his release. Israel refused to negotiate and demanded an immediate unconditional release of the kidnapped soldier. The Israeli army deployed tanks and artillery around the Gaza Strip and military operations have since been underway. The violence spread to the West Bank. Israel targeted infrastructure as well as the population. Additionally, Israel detained 64 Hamas political leaders including 38 p
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