RESULTS OF ISRAEL'S RAMPAGE IN GAZA - OVER 4,000 HOMES DESTROYED

The BBC reports on the extensive destruction to homes and property in Gaza. More than 4,000 homes are destroyed, tens of thousands of people are without shelter and their belongings.

According to the BBC:

"Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been left destitute by Israel's three-week offensive against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, the UN estimates.

"The United Nations says that some 50,800 people are now homeless and 400,000 are without running water.

"Correspondents in Gaza City say entire neighbourhoods have been flattened and bodies are still being recovered."

What then was Israel's purpose in inflicting so much damage and loss on ordinary Palestinians? To teach them a lesson? That they should not have elected Hamas as their government?

And what will Israel gain out of this "collective punishment"? More terrorist suicide bombers? More hatred on the part of the Palestinians? Certainly Israelis recognize that military action and its attendant killing of innocent men, women and children can never bring peace or stability.

So why did Israel do this stupid and ill-thought-out invasion and why did Israeli soldiers engage in this rampant destruction of homes, schools, mosques and police stations?

Here is a BBC reporter's eyewitness observations:

"The BBC's Christian Fraser travelled to Jabaliya on the northern edge of Gaza City, where the Israeli tanks first crossed over the border. He says entire neighbourhoods have disappeared.

"He met 67-year-old Fatma Umanim, sitting beside the remains her collapsed house, her neighbours building a makeshift shelter for her next to the rubble."