The Israel Defence Forces (idf) had indeed entered Gaza from two points: around Beit Hanoun, a town in the north, and Bureij, near the narrow midpoint of the 45km-long strip. Relentless air strikes and artillery had provided cover for dozens of tanks and other armoured vehicles carrying infantry and combat-engineering troops. As night fell over the Gaza Strip on October 27th, the Palestinian mobile-phone networks in the coastal enclave stopped working. Rumours soon spread that Israel had begun a ground invasion of the territory. The few cameras that offered a view into Gaza captured some of the fiercest bombardment yet in the three-week war between Israel and Hamas, the militant Islamist group that controls the strip. Do you think tat Hamas can be so dump to allow Israel encircle it ?