November8, 2006: Palestinians claim that 18 civilians were killed by five Israeli artillery shells landing in Gaza. The Israelis were shelling because the Palestinians had again fired rockets into Israel. The Palestinians believe it is their right to fire rockets into Israel, and that Israeli attempts to stop the rockets, are a war crime. In the 14 months since Israel pulled out of Gaza, nearly 600 Palestinians have been killed fighting each other and the Israelis. While the Israeli border defenses have kept Palestinian terrorists out of Israel, the Palestinians have turned to firing home made ("Kassam") rockets into Israel. This has brought down Israeli artillery and air strikes on rocket building and firing sites, and raids by Israeli troops to stop the rockets. The Israeli operations have killed about two thirds of the Palestinians who have died in the last 14 months.

Hamas has now called for Moslems around the world to attack America. In the past, Hamas has not done this, mainly because the U.S. was the major contributor of aid to Palestinians. But most of this aid has been cut off since Hamas won the election to run the Palestinian territories. Hamas refused to back off on its call for the destruction of Israel, so, by law, American aid was stopped. Apparently Hamas does not believe the aid will ever be restored.

November 7, 2006: Israeli troops withdrew from Gaza, after a week of searching for rocket workshops and weapons. Israeli troops attacked nine different groups that were firing rockets at Israel. The week of operations left forty Palestinians and one Israeli dead. There were also the usual air attacks on terrorist locations and leaders in Gaza and the West Bank.

November 6, 2006: In Gaza, a female suicide bomber attempted to attack Israeli troops, but her explosives only killed her, and wounded a nearby Israeli soldier. The Palestinians are increasingly using women, because Palestinian men are generally ineffective in attacks against Israelis, and the Israelis tend to be less alert with Palestinian women. With more Palestinian women taking part in attacks, the Israelis will have to spend more time dealing with checking Palestinian women for weapons and bombs. This will cause more of an uproar in the European press, and help get the Europeans to intervene on the side of the Palestinians. A week of Israeli operations in Gaza has left seven Palestinians dead. The Israelis have been searching for rockets, and arresting those known to be involved in attacking Israel.

November 5, 2006: Hamas and Fatah continue to try, without success, to form a unity government. Hamas refuses to back down on its policy of making war on Israel. This prevents most of the foreign aid from being delivered. Hamas apparently believes that if there is enough fighting with Israel, the resulting Palestinian civilian casualties will enrage the Palestinians, and cause the Europeans to restore aid.

November 3, 2006: In Gaza, Israeli troops have over fifty Hamas gunmen besieged in a mosque. Hamas calls for local women to assemble outside the mosque, and push past the Israelis so the Hamas gunmen can escape. This almost works, but a dozen women are shot in the process, and only about ten of the Hamas gunmen escape. Hamas declares it a great victory. The siege of the mosque continues.

In Egypt, police found two buried caches of explosives (TNT). One, containing a ton of explosives, was apparently to be smuggled into Gaza. The other cache was for the use of Islamic terrorists in Egypt.