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And so we wait. Wait for Israel and Hamas to agree on a ceasefire. Wait for the bombing and fighting to stop. There will be a ceasefire but on the ground it doesn't seem close.
The hill, near Sderot, where most of the foreign media are observing this conflict is very crowded now. It's speckled with satellite trucks, technicians, journalists and litter. Israel have banned foreign journalists from entering Gaza so this is as close as we can get and every day a new crew arrives and looks out on a war zone.
But it's not just journalists sitting on the hill. There's the war junkies in army surplus fatigues with their binoculars and cheap digital cameras driving up flying Israeli flags. There's the man who kept yelling turn off your cameras and the war will stop. Singing Hasidic hippies strumming guitars. And the man dressed as a clown who kept jumping up behind the Fox reporter as he delivered his live report.
From the hill the sights and sounds of the conflict are very close. You can see and hear planes, helicopters and tanks firing their missiles and dropping their bombs. The rat tat tat of machine guns is constant and there's an Israeli artillery position near by loudly firing shells into Gaza.
Black smoke rises into the blue winter sky as Gaza burns. It's frustrating that we can't verify the reports coming out of Gaza but you tend to listen when soldiers carrying machine guns tell you you can't go any further.
We rely on the brave journalists sending pictures and reports out of Gaza. They are our eyes and ears and showing extreme courage under two weeks of intense fire. It's their pictures of dead and injured Gava civilians, especially children, that is fueling the huge anti-Israel protests on the streets of Western capitals.
We wear our flak jackets when we're close to Gaza. We're a kilometre away from the fighting and I know the Israeli authorities think this reinforces their point that Southern Israel is a war zone under constant bombardment.
I wear my flak jacket for two reasons. Firstly our insurance requires us to and secondly a Hamas missile fell close enough to me last week to make me want to wear it. The number of rockets and missiles fired into Israel has dropped since the ground assault but at least three have been fired at Ashkelon in the past hour and a half and landed near our hotel. We have between 20 and 30 seconds to get to the hotel safe rooms. You come out when you hear the muffled thud land near by. Today one hit a school which had been struck before, one landed near the hospital and another in an empty field. Two people have been injured.
They are nowhere as powerful as the bombs Israel is dropping on Gaza and every day brings more misery for the poor people living there. They only get three hours a day to replenish supplies and bury their dead. Israel is buying time before a ceasefire to try to wipe out as much of Hamas as possible. Hamas wants to survive the onslaught to negotiate from a position of strength.
The assault has only intensified over the past few days and Israel now has to decide whether to send more troops into the crowded and narrow alleyways of the refugee camps and Gaza City. Hamas soldiers say they are lying in wait. It will only mean significantly more dead bodies, both civilian and soldier.
It will mean more Israeli casualties, which have been low so far, but it may also hasten the ceasefire. Israel has ignored the diplomatic pressure to stop the assault and the thousands marching against the war across the world.
Opinion polls show around 90% of Israelis back this conflict but that may change very quickly if more of their troops start coming home in body bags.
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