""the present declared and official line of Hamas is that all Jews in the region must be exterminated.""

If one accepts that, then there is no reason for Israel ever to stop until they have rendered Gaza uninhabitable for either their people or Palestinians.

Since Israel has never offered withdrawal the point is moot.

That Hamas will stop the attacks following the removal of Israelis from the illegally occupied land is no more or less believable than that Israel will withdraw following the cessation of Hamas attacks.

The one thing that is indisputible is that the Palestinians will take generations to recover, while Israel has hardly any real damage.

Don T.