Gaza War

At least 814 Palestinians, roughly half of them civilians,

have died since war broke out on Dec. 27, according to Palestinian medical officials. Thirteen Israelis, including 10 soldiers, have been killed.




(Smoke rises above Gaza after another Israeli air strike on a Hamas target, December 29, 2008 along Israel's side of the Gaza border)

(Scores of Israeli army tanks and armored personnel carriers are massed on December 29, 2008 near Israel's border with the Gaza Strip)

The tunnels also are one of the main reasons fighting is continuing in the Gaza Strip.

As Israeli officials debate how far to press their campaign in Gaza, one of their chief goals is to find a way to crimp or halt the flow of arms to Hamas through a complex of tunnels under the territory's border with Egypt.

"A preponderance of weapons have come through those tunnels," said a senior US military official who has seen classified intelligence reports on Hamas arms flows.

A US government study issued in 2008 reported that Egyptian officials have privately acknowledged that between 10 and 30 main tunnel shafts run underneath the border at any one time. Some of the tunnels are large enough to run railroad cars under the border.

Long-range Iranian-made missiles, such as the Grad rockets that struck Ashkelon in May 2008, are relatively large weapons that could only be moved through tunnels of considerable scale, according to a former Pentagon official.

Source: www.boston.com