Basil, can we just step back a moment from the killing of civilians which as distastful as it is, is a part of war which is what we are dealing with. All the talk of ceasfires and stopping rockets and opening borders are all useful but just treating symptoms and not the cause.
I think the cause of all this is Iran, I believe that Hamas (and similar groups) are sponsored by Iran in order to actually perpetuate this middle eastern conflict. I have always thought that Iran's goal is to control the Holy Islamic mosques of Masjid al Haram in Mecca and Masjid al-Nabawi in Medina. In order to do this they need an excuse to either directly invade or proxy an invasion of an Arab country. Iran could not and would not invade Saudi as Iranians are not Arabs thus their only other option is to install a puppet in Saudi by an "invasion" through Shī‘ah sponsored groups loyal to the Iranian ruling Clerics.
How do you achieve this? Simple really.....you keep unrest going in Palestine and Israel. The reason is not hard to see, the USA and "west" are seen as friends of Israel or on the other side aggressors against the Palestinians, thus, by default against Islam! Iran needs to forment revolution in Saudia Arabia to rid the country of the ruling Ibn Saud family and to install an Iranian proxy which they can do by fueling fundementalist factions with money, weapons and religious dogma as well as anti-western propoganda - tales of US and western aggression against the poor Palestinians etc. etc. etc.
Saudi Arabia is allied with the west, why? Not really because of oil as that is just commerce - a simple commercial transaction (look at Russia). Saudi Arabia needs the protection of non-muslim allies such as the UK and US because they need support against the fundementalist wahabi factions and those of Shī‘ah Muslims which make up majority of Iran and Iraq!
So, in my humble oppinion treating the causes of the actual conflict and stopping civilian casualties one really has to look at Iran and Hamas' relationship with Iran and Shī‘ah Islamic expansionism. Hopefully that will come when Ayatollah Khamenei passes away, however, I fear there are a few more years of fighting and dying left to go!
