Battered By Israel, Hamas Faces Tough Choice

A Palestinian woman is brought to the Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, which Israel’s tanks and troops entered from three on the 16th day of its offensive. The death toll in the strip neared 900, with at least one-third of those killed women and children, according to Palestinian medical officials. Abid Katib, Getty Images

From The L.A. Times:

The militant group appears ready to continue fighting, but for how long and at what cost? And can it accept a cease-fire without winning concessions, such as the end of the 18-month blockade?

Reporting from Gaza City and Jerusalem -- Hamas fighters are scattered in cells across the Gaza Strip, launching rockets, ambushing Israeli soldiers, and vanishing into tunnels and bunkers to escape airstrikes on a pummeled terrain of shattered buildings and bodies curled and crumpled in the streets.

As the Israeli incursion rumbles into a 17th day, witnesses in Gaza and analysts portray the Islamic militant group as battered but defiant. Its walkie-talkie networks bleep and scratch through alleys, and its fighters, many in civilian clothes, move with the stealth of urban guerrillas, booby-trapping neighborhoods, communicating through e-mails, text messages and whispers in marketplaces.

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