That the Israelis probably helped create a willing band of militants by bombing Gaza and blockading its people is probably now an oxymoron.
BBC News reports on the despair and rage of Gaza's youths:
"Ten young men sit talking and smoking by the light of a paraffin lamp in a basement room.
The flags of militant groups - Hamas, Islamic Jihad - flutter outside among the densely packed cinder-block houses of Gaza's Jabaliya refugee camp.
The area is a key haunt of the factions behind the rocket attacks that Israel's recent assault on Gaza was aimed at ending.
Its frustrated, mainly unemployed youths are prime recruitment targets for the militants.
But as the young men, sitting in coats in the unheated room, mull over Israel's 22-day operation, despair is as common a theme as revenge.
About half of the group say they have been members of armed groups at some point. Others now say they want to join.
"I used to keep away from military activity," says student Ahmad al-Khateeb, 21. "I wanted to graduate and leave the country. I was sometimes afraid of death".
But now, unable to sit his exams because his ID papers are buried under the rubble of his home, he says his views have "completely changed".
Sports science student Mohammad al-Mukayed, 22, says he saw three children killed by an airstrike as they played in the street just meters away from him.
"They were just pieces of flesh. I wanted to help but I couldn't. I do think of joining a group. I would rather be killed defending my land than die like these kids, doing nothing."
Hassan Abu al-Jeddian, 23, says says he was not interested in militant activity before the war, and his views have not changed.
He says his cousin's head was blown off in an air strike and describes watching three young boys killed as a car in front of him was hit, but says simply, "I am a civilian".
With the Israeli blockade of Gaza most of the youths are unemployed and unable to leave the crowded strip of land.
Israel intensified the blockade when Hamas, which it considers a terrorist organisation, won elections in 2006 and consolidated control by force a year later.
With few job opportunities even for those who can afford to study, many young people dream of emigrating.
"We're dead - either by Israeli weapons or as the living dead," says Mahmoud Abuqammar, 22."
Meanwhile, another aspect of the blockade is discussed in an interview on ABC Radio National's Breakfast program [today] with a representative of Human Rights Watch - here.
BBC News reports on the despair and rage of Gaza's youths:
"Ten young men sit talking and smoking by the light of a paraffin lamp in a basement room.
The flags of militant groups - Hamas, Islamic Jihad - flutter outside among the densely packed cinder-block houses of Gaza's Jabaliya refugee camp.
The area is a key haunt of the factions behind the rocket attacks that Israel's recent assault on Gaza was aimed at ending.
Its frustrated, mainly unemployed youths are prime recruitment targets for the militants.
But as the young men, sitting in coats in the unheated room, mull over Israel's 22-day operation, despair is as common a theme as revenge.
About half of the group say they have been members of armed groups at some point. Others now say they want to join.
"I used to keep away from military activity," says student Ahmad al-Khateeb, 21. "I wanted to graduate and leave the country. I was sometimes afraid of death".
But now, unable to sit his exams because his ID papers are buried under the rubble of his home, he says his views have "completely changed".
Sports science student Mohammad al-Mukayed, 22, says he saw three children killed by an airstrike as they played in the street just meters away from him.
"They were just pieces of flesh. I wanted to help but I couldn't. I do think of joining a group. I would rather be killed defending my land than die like these kids, doing nothing."
Hassan Abu al-Jeddian, 23, says says he was not interested in militant activity before the war, and his views have not changed.
He says his cousin's head was blown off in an air strike and describes watching three young boys killed as a car in front of him was hit, but says simply, "I am a civilian".
With the Israeli blockade of Gaza most of the youths are unemployed and unable to leave the crowded strip of land.
Israel intensified the blockade when Hamas, which it considers a terrorist organisation, won elections in 2006 and consolidated control by force a year later.
With few job opportunities even for those who can afford to study, many young people dream of emigrating.
"We're dead - either by Israeli weapons or as the living dead," says Mahmoud Abuqammar, 22."
Meanwhile, another aspect of the blockade is discussed in an interview on ABC Radio National's Breakfast program [today] with a representative of Human Rights Watch - here.
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