The thousands of Palestinian rockets, so wild and erratic that some Israeli analysts dismiss them as "flying stove-pipes", have killed 19 Israelis in eight years. In the same period 3000 Palestinians have died under Israeli fire in Gaza.

However, in June last year a deal was struck. Rocket fire from Gaza into Israel's southern communities did not stop, but it was curtailed dramatically. The arrangement was described variously as a "ceasefire" or a "truce". At times the Arabic term tahdi'ah, which translates as a lull or a period of calm, was used.

There was no agreed text. This was an indirect understanding, arrived at through talks by negotiators for Hamas and Israel who met separately with Egyptian middlemen. Israel believed Hamas had agreed to stop the rain of rockets fired from Gaza into Israel. Hoping to breathe some life back into the strip's comatose economy, Hamas understood that in exchange, Israel would end its year-long siege of Gaza.

Figures quoted by The New York Times show the rocket rate was reduced by as much as 80 per cent or 90 per cent as Hamas curbed its own fire and that of the lesser militia groups in Gaza. But the number of trucks entering Gaza increased only marginally. By closing its crossings into Gaza, Israel can stop the movement of goods, fuel and people, often allowing a trickle of movement that imposes a level of hardship that by some measures is short of total economic collapse.

Under the June deal, the daily rate of trucks entering Gaza did increase - but only from about 70 a day to 90 which, according to The New York Times, was well short of a pre-siege delivery rate of between 500 and 600 trucks a day. Against this background, mind-numbing cyclical violence continued at a vastly reduced and, seemingly, acceptable scale.

Israeli forces made the odd incursion into Gaza, with either tanks or bulldozers or from the air; the Palestinian militias lobbed the odd rocket or volley of sniper fire, sometimes claiming the use of Israeli force in the West Bank as justification. Numerous press reports cite a particular Israeli incursion in the first week of November as the last straw for the ceasefire which was due to expire on December 19 but, presumably, might have been extended by negotiation - had any of the world's greater powers attempted to intervene constructively.

Israeli forces entered Gaza on November 5, claiming their objective was to destroy a tunnel which they feared Hamas might use to abduct an Israeli soldier - as they had done in the past. In the firefight that erupted, six Hamas fighters were killed. In the ensuing two weeks another 17 Palestinian militiamen died and an estimated 140 rockets and mortars were fired from Gaza into Israel. The rockets were intolerable, Israel said, and the truce was over.

Robert Pastor, an aide to Jimmy Carter in the former US president's much-criticised mediation efforts, said of the ceasefire: "It did lead to a significant reduction in the number of rockets fired at Israel … but the truce had less impact on goods going in[to Gaza]." John Ging, head of the United Nations' struggling relief operation in Gaza, judged it a one-sided deal. "The people of Gaza did not benefit - they did not have any restoration of a dignified existence," he said. "Our supplies were also restricted … to the point where we were left in a very vulnerable and precarious position."

Citing the ceasefire as the single most important factor in reducing civilian casualties in almost a decade, Amnesty International in the US concluded that Palestinians had been short-changed. "[It] brought enormous improvements in the quality of life [for Israeli communities which] lived in fear of the next Palestinian rocket strike. However, the Israeli blockade remains in place and the population [of Gaza] has so far seen few dividends from the ceasefire," Amnesty said.

On Al-Quds TV on December 14, the Hamas leader Khalid Mishal said: "The tahdi'ah was limited to six months, ending on December 19. It should be noted the enemy did not comply with the terms of the tahdi'ah, and that the siege still pressures our people. Therefore, we in Hamas, and I think most of the [other] forces, [say] loud and clear that after December 19, 2008, the tahdi'ah will end, and will not be renewed."

Interviewer: This may be a scoop. You are declaring there will be no tahdi'ah after … December 19 …

Mishal: The tahdi'ah will not be renewed, but we, as a resistance force on the ground, will act in accordance to the circumstances in the field, and in keeping with our resistance to the occupation and defence of our people.

Clearly, Israel thought likewise.