"I am in shock, I can't believe it," Riba Abu Saithan said, crying. "My two children, they are priceless to me. My life is now very difficult."

In Ashkelon, a town in southern Israel, everyone is constantly afraid of rocket attacks, its mayor said.

"We can't go on like this," Mayor Benny Vaknin told CNN's Frederik Pleitgen. "We have 131,000 people here and 26,000 children. They are constantly under threat."

Many experts expect that both Israel and Hamas will find it in their best interests to eventually stop fighting. Neither side has much to gain in repeating the events of 2009, writes Aaron David Miller, a vice president and distinguished scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Miller, who served as a Middle East negotiator in Democratic and Republican organizations, said: "War didn't fix the problem then, and it's unlikely to fix it now. Nor do the Israelis -- when the real threat is Iran -- want to get into a major military and political mess over Gaza that would make their relationship with Egypt even more complicated."

But if war isn't the answer, why do the bombs and rockets continue to fly?

Nathan J. Brown, a professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University, said each side suspects the other of playing domestic politics.

"Palestinians fear that the Israeli government is making war with an eye to upcoming elections. Israelis suspect that Hamas -- whose full name is the "Islamic Resistance Movement" -- is lobbing rockets because it is tired of its rivals' taunting that it is not living up to its middle name," said Brown, who has authored six books on Middle East politics.

There is some truth to these charges, Brown said, but both sides have other goals in mind.

"The Israelis know that they cannot dislodge Hamas from Gaza without unacceptable cost and endless occupation. But they want to punish the movement so severely that it will be deterred from future violence," he said. "Hamas knows that the damage it inflicts serves no strategic value, but it hopes that its rockets will cause dislocation and even panic in Israel and send an international message that Gaza cannot be ignored."