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LISA: Hamad AbuQuammar works for the BBC and he lives in Gaza. Hamad, you might have heard the news today from the White House, which urged Israel to be “very cautious when it comes to civilian casualties”, saying that it wants them to be kept to a minimum. Now, it can be said of course that Hamas seems to aim for civilians in its near-daily rocket fire on southern Israel. But where you are in Hamas-run Gaza right now, what is Hamas doing and what is Israel doing that you can detect to prevent or minimize the number of Palestinian casualties?

HAMAD: Well, Hamas are living in and among the Palestinian people, among the one million and a half. And Hamas institutions have been destroyed by the Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip. They have destroyed all the Hamas government buildings in the air strike, but Hamas people they are living here in the Gaza and Israel, they know very well that they can't separate Hamas from the Palestinian population. Israel, they know that civilians, they're caught in the middle. And instead of all that, Hamas is still firing rockets to Israeli towns nearby. And also, Israel, they are attacking right now people's houses. I mean, I have been speaking to witnesses in Jabaliyah and in Gaza City, fire actually is on in some of the people's houses.

LISA: And to that, Israel would very likely say because that's where the Hamas militants are hiding out. And in some cases, that's where the rockets are coming from. Does Hamas appear to be trying to minimize civilian casualties by moving out of the most densely populated areas? And we know that Gaza, you know, 25 miles long along the coast, 1.5 million people in that area, we know that it's basically elbow-to-elbow, but there are some clearings. Does Hamas appear to be trying to minimize casualties among civilians?

HAMAD: Hamas, they used to be – in the previous incursions to be in the streets of the Gaza Strip, but today we don't see Hamas militants in the streets. Just right now, intense exchange of fire is going on east of Gaza City and east of Jamibylah refugee camp also, where dozens of artillery shells actually landed on people's houses. So we have witnessed a whole family of seven people that have been killed overnight by an Israeli shell to their house. But in spite of all that, Hamas keep firing rockets and Hamas military wing spokesman today, we got SMS messages from them saying that Hamas is fine and we are ready to keep firing rockets for months and months.

LISA: You're saying that Hamas is sending notice to reporters like you by text message?

HAMAD: They are sending text messages to some journalists about rockets and about – we are hearing, you know, from them that they have killed some Israelis in the north of Gaza Strip and in east of Gaza City. And Hamas, they are calling for defeating Israel in Gaza and they are claiming victory at the end. And this has been confirmed by the Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh two days ago. He said, “We are calling to defeat Israel.”

LISA: Are the Palestinian people, in any kind of numbers, putting pressure on Hamas to stop firing rockets into Israel, knowing that nothing is going to change as long as those rockets keep firing which, as you said, they are. Is any – are the Palestinians at all pressuring Hamas to stop?

HAMAD: Well, the Palestinian people, they are always claiming responsibility to the Israeli government who are seizing the Gaza Strip more than 18 months ago. And there is big shortages of basic items in the Gaza Strip. And right now there is electricity cuts on all Gaza City because of this ground operation. Also, medical supplies are in shortage. So people in the Gaza Strip, they are blaming Israel and the international community of seizing the Gaza Strip, of closing all the borders.

LISA: That's Hamad AbuQuammar who works for the BBC. He lives in Gaza, and he was speaking to us in fact from Gaza. Thank you very much.

HAMAD: Thank you.

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