Gaza under attack - Peace will be secured by talking

If there were any moderates left on the Gaza Strip at the start of the month there can hardly be any now, but as the conflict escalates the worry must be that things might get much worse.

If Israel persists with its air operations, and yesterday the indications were that they would, the civilian death toll will mount, diplomatic support for Israel will melt away making a diplomatic resolution even more remote.

Inevitably, a re-energised Hamas will continue to strike Israeli targets with their increasingly sophisticated rockets. This tit-for-tat aggression runs the risk of gathering the kind of momentum that can only end in catastrophe for Israel, those hemmed in on the Gaza Strip, their neighbours and, in a worst case scenario, the entire region.