Israeli troops and tanks encircled Gaza City on Tuesday, after which the tanks proceeded to enter the city with some 1.5 million Palestinians living in it. Suffice to say that both Hamas and Israel have rejected the ceasefire advocated by the international community.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon once again displayed the powerlessness of his organization by calling on both sides to “just stop” the violence after which Israeli tanks happily went into Gaza City in order to severely weaken if not destroy Hamas.

Not only did Israeli tanks invade Gaza City, Israel also bombed approximately 60 targets overnight.

At least 30 Hamas fighters were killed in the first few hours of today’s fighting, the Israeli Defense Forces said. This means that almost 400 Hamas warriors have been killed thus far.

“We are tightening the encirclement of the city,” Brig. Eyal Eisenberg, commander of the Israeli offensive, told reporters brought in to Gaza to observe the deployment, as quoted by CNN.

Meanwhile, Ban Ki-Moon also weighed in. “My message is simple, direct and to the point — the fighting must stop,” the secretary-general told reporters in New York. “To both sides, I say, just stop now. Too many people have died. “There has been too much civilian suffering. Too many people, Israelis and Palestinians — live in daily fear of their lives, and in Gaza the very foundation of society is being destroyed.”

As should be expected by now, both sides smiled when the secretary general made his announcement and went on pursuing their goals.

The fighting has indeed cost many Palestinians their lives but it seems that it has been reasonably successful from an Israeli perspective. Hamas seems to be severely weakened, it has even reached out to Turkey saying that it is willing to allow Turkish troops on the Rafah border crossing; this while the terrorist organization said for years that no foreign troops would be allowed on Palestinian territory.

Hamas’ leaders continue to boast publicly that they are fighting the Israeli army and defeating it (with Hamas’ Haniye saying: “We are closer to victory than ever”) but everyone knows better. Hamas is in no way as strong as Hezbollah was 2.5 years ago; and even Hezbollah was militarily beaten by the Israelis.

When calling the operation thus far ’successful’ for Israel one has to keep in mind that I am purely talking about the military side of the operation. It is most certainly not a success from a PR perspective, nor from a foreign policy one. With the latter I mean the following: Europe has obviously distanced itself from Israel, but so has Turkey, a key regional ally of the Jewish nation-state. Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan has stepped up the rhetoric in recent days, insisting that Israel is targeting Palestinian civilians and that it will be “punished” by God for its actions. At the same time, the foreign policy aspects of operation Cast Lead cannot be considered a defeat either considering the fact that Egypt has supported Israel constantly and continues to do so today by rejecting calls from fellow Arab countries for an emergency summit.

Meanwhile, the war becomes more violent than it already was, and complaints about Israel’s behavior increase. The International Red Cross said Tuesday, for instance, that its personnel have been purposefully targeted by Israeli soldiers. Its ambulances have been hit by Israeli rockets, its staffers have been shot at. Not only do medical personnel suffer, increasingly more journalists (the house where a reporter for Al Jazeera, for instance, was reporting from was hit by an Israeli rocket) and Palestinian civilians are falling victim to the violence as well. The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is worsening. Israel says it has killed approximately 400-500 Hamas fighters by now, which may very well be true. Considering that some 920 Palestinians have died, however, simple math leads one to the conclusion that approximately 33% (see this for stats that show 290 children and 75 women have been killed) to 50% of those killed were civilians (the math is a bit difficult to do, because the exact numbers differ a bit; it is generally assumed, however, that approximately 950 Palestinians have died, of whom 350 – 450 civilians). Whether this is correct or not, one thing is clear: many, many civilians have died, and Israel’s offensive seems to not just increase in scale but also in aggression. This has done terrible damage to Israel’s image and reputation.

Perhaps we should not even mention what the war means to Palestinian civilians; where most of Israel’s actions could be defended in the first 7 days to 1 week of the war, it is becoming increasingly difficult to defend the IDF because one sees increasingly more civilians and medical workers being targeted. This does not mean that Hamas does not bear any responsibility for these deaths; it does, to a considerable degree it is responsible for them. But it is also Israel’s responsibility to make sure that as few civilians as possible die and that medical workers can do their job. I cannot help but get the impression that this is not what Israel is doing; that is a terrible shame, both for Israel and the Palestinian people. If one watches Al Jazeera, for instance, one can simply see IDF soldiers refuse medical workers entrance to areas where wounded individuals are lying on the floor. Israel says that this is because Hamas uses these people as a shield, which is to a large degree true, but this does not mean that one cannot allow these medical workers to go in and take out the wounded.

All of this does not mean that Israel’s decision to go to war was immoral, inhuman, or unnecessary taken. It does mean, however, that one holds Israel responsible and accountable for deaths that did not have to occur. This is healthy.

Of course, the focus should also be on Hamas; which uses children and women as human shields, which hides in schools, mosques and hospitals and which continues to fire rockets at Israeli civilians on a daily basis. Today alone, at least 13 rockets were fired at Israeli villages and towns.

One wonders what the impact of the operation will be on Israel, the strength of Hamas (it is being weakened, hopefully this will result in Fatah taking back Gaza) and on the Palestinian people.