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As the smoke starts to clear and the rubble starts to be dug out in the aftermath of Israel’s latest assault on the besieged Gaza Strip, there seems to be little that has changed, even in the most cynical sense. 17 children were killed in Israel’s latest surge of violence (two children were also killed in the West Bank in recent days, deaths that western media has largely ignored), a round that Israel desperately tried to provoke and, failing that, simply launched an attack regardless. For what was this done, what did these lives pay for?

Obscenely, the answer is very little. In my latest piece for Mondoweiss I explore some of the context for last week’s killing, why Hamas stayed outside the fighting, and the motivations for Israel that went well beyond the immediate electoral concerns for PM Yair Lapid and DM Benny Gantz.