10 facts to help you understand the Gaza attacks

OK, so you know that Israel has launched air strikes targeting Hamas leadership on the Gaza strip.

And you know that the strikes are in retaliation against weeks of rocket attacks on towns in Israel.

But maybe you're not sure who the good guys and the bad guys are in this whole messy scenario.

Maybe you're not even sure where Gaza is. Maybe you hear the words "Middle East conflict" and you tune out instantly.

The bad news is, we're not going to tell you who's right or wrong. The good news is, we'll lay down a few facts here to help your general understanding.

ISRAEL
A small, democratic country less than a third the size of Tasmania which came into being in 1948 courtesy of a UN resolution after the horrors of the Holocaust in Europe during WWII.

Israel was pencilled in as a homeland for the Jewish people nearly 6,000 years ago by none other than God, if you believe the old testament. In 1917, the British set aside land in the region known as Palestine for the future state of Israel. It allocated a much larger chunk of land to the local people from whom today's "Palestinians" are descended.

THE PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES
Areas of disputed land within the borders of the state of Israel. There are two main territories. There is the West Bank, which refers to the eastern central part of Israel which lies west of the Jordan River, and which pretty much surrounds the Israeli capital Jerusalem. And there is the Gaza strip, a small enclave of land on Israel's Mediterranean coastline.

The West Bank is governed by the comparatively moderate Fatah group. The heavily populated Gaza strip is governed by the radical Hamas group, which seized control in 2007. The two groups are effectively at war with each other, even though both share the goal of a Palestinian state. Crucially, the US recognises the Palestinian National Authority on the West Bank but not Hamas.

FELAFEL
We just put this in to give you a breather. Felafel is made of deep fried chick peas (plus other stuff like garlic, depending on taste) and in the Middle East is always served hot and crunchy, not cold and hard as it is sometimes here in sad takeaways that really should know better. It's not always served in a roll. Often people just munch bags of felafel on its own.

HAMAS
The ruling party in the Gaza Strip is an Islamic fundamentalist group classed by some as a terrorist group. Regular rocket attacks against Israel are just part of its stated long term strategy to replace the state of Israel with an Islamic Palestinian state.

TODAY'S ATTACK
Israel has systematically targeted Hamas leaders in Gaza since at least 2002, and has won no friends by killing numerous civilians in its strikes. Today's strike was the first major one since 2009. It targeted and killed Hamas military commander Ahmed Jabari. The attack was in response to a spate of over 100 rockets fired into Southern Israel over the past four days, as well as multiple terrorist attacks which killed Israeli citizens over the last decade.

PALESTINIAN CASUALTIES
Israel has long claimed that Hamas hides weapons deliberately in heavily populated areas to maximise casualties and international sympathy. Hamas claims that Israel's superior strike weapons are deployed with little regard for collateral damage.

WHAT WILL ISRAEL'S NEIGHBOURS DO?
Though Iran has no border with Israel and Tehran is around 1500km northwest of Jerusalem, it is a major wildcard. Iran is increasing its nuclear capability and continues to sponsor militant groups working against Israel. It has thousands of missiles pointed Israel's way. Egypt, the closest thing Israel has to a friend in its immediate neighbourhood, has withdrawn its ambassador in response to the assassination of Jabari. Syria has well-documented internal conflicts of its own at the moment, but it is no friend of Israel's either and the two countries had a border skirmish on the Golan Heights region this week.

WHAT AMERICA SAYS
A staunch ally of Israel, the US State Department today said: "We support Israel's right to defend itself, and we encourage Israel to continue to take every effort to avoid civilian casualties".

ISRAEL AND PALESTINE AT THE OLYMPICS
Here's another breather to get you through a heavy list. The Palestinian Territories have competed at the last five Olympics, always to tumultuous applause, but have sent tiny, essentially token teams which have never won a medal. Israel has competed at the Olympics since 1952. The low point was the murder of 11 athletes at the 1972 Munich Games by a Palestinian terrorist group. The high point was a gold in windsurfing in 2004.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
The region is now poised on the brink of outright war after Palestinian militants said Israel had "opened the gates of hell". Social media users can follow developments from the Israeli Defence Force perspective using the hash tag #PillarOfDefense and the Hamas armed wing Al-Qassam using #GazaUnderAttack.

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