An elderly Palestinian sits in front of his house at the Ash-Shaboura refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah. (Hatem Omar, Maan Images)

For five months, until the first week of November, the Gaza Strip and its neighbouring Israeli towns to the north and the east enjoyed unprecedented peace that was the product of the hudna, or truce, agreed between Hamas and Israel through Egyptian mediation. Despite the continuation of the siege that denied the population of Gaza much of what other people around the world may consider life necessities, men, women and children could walk the streets of the Strip without fear and spend hours of their free time enjoying the beach. On the other side of the divide, Israel saw tourism flourish.

Then, suddenly, the Israeli government decided to authorise the army to act against perceived threats within what it calls the "security parameter" - a several hundred-metre strip beyond the border between Gaza and Israel.

On November 4 the Israeli army penetrated Gaza, killing six Hamas officers under the pretext of having discovered a tunnel close to the Kisufim roadblock. Since then, and despite statements made by spokespeople on both sides that they still wished to observe the hudna, Israel forces have crossed the border several times and Hamas, joined later by other Palestinian factions, resumed shelling nearby Israeli towns.

Why did Israeli politicians feel the need to end the peace despite the benefits reaped? Though they blamed Hamas for starting the violence, not a single rocket had been fired from the inception of the hudna to the raid on Gaza.

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