WATCH: Firefight Erupts as Israel Moves to Take Out Terrorists in Gaza

Israel has declared its determination to eradicate the network of underground tunnels used in Gaza by the terrorist group Hamas. The radical Islamic group has fired hundreds of rockets from Gaza into Israel, and the Israel Defense Forces have responded with aerial bombardment and the massing of 70,000 troops near theGaza border, prepared to destroy those tunnels.

One Fox News crew recently experienced just a small taste of what it would be like to be on the receiving end of an Israeli strike.

Twice while filming, Fox News correspondent John Huddy and his cameraman were startled by nearby strikes from Israeli forces into Gaza, one an airstrike and another from a ship firing from offshore.

From Fox News Insider:

“We’ve had that kind of action before in the seven, eight days that we’ve been here now, but not with such frequency as we’ve seen tonight,” Huddy said, adding that the battle has intensified in the last 24 hours.

He said there have been about four or five airstrikes over the course of the last couple of hours.

Huddy said, “Whenever something is that close, including the artillery fire and the air strikes, I mean yeah, the natural tendency is to get down. And sure, it’s frightening. And as far as the people who stay in their homes and are being used as human shields, according to military officials, by Hamas, it’s unconscionable.”

Israel makes a point to inform Gaza residents prior to attacks in a humane attempt to reduce civilian casualties, but Hamas often forces people to remain in place, apparently hoping for civilian casualties to use in anti-Israeli propaganda.

Israel, the only democracy in the middle east, is fighting a war for self-preservation; Hamas wants to destroy the Jewish state and does not care what tactics it has to use to accomplish that goal.

Even if we knew nothing else about the tactics used by Hamas–for instance, the use of human shields which Huddy references–those two facts alone would be enough to illustrate which side of this battle America needs to be on.

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