At least 19 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli military on Friday November 3, 2006, including two women, and other civilians. No Israelis were killed.

Although photographs of Friday's attack on Palestinian women have been widely disseminated, the bigger story is still not being told.

These killings are part of a new, longer-term pattern; there has been a dramatic rise in the number of Palestinians killed by the Israeli military since Hamas took control of the Palestinian Authority seven months ago, despite the low number of Israelis killed by Palestinians during that time.

Palestinians, already subject to occupation by the Israeli military, have been killed at a rate of 26 Palestinians for every Israeli killed since Hamas took power on March 29, 2006.

Since July that ratio has risen to 76 Palestinians for every Israeli.

Though the mainstream media still reports on a "conflict" between "two sides", over the past seven months it has simply been a slaughter.

According to casualty figures from B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights organisation, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and press reports for November 1-3, in the period between March 29, when the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority took office and November 3, 491 Palestinians have been killed by Israel while 19 Israelis have been killed by Palestinians, 25.8 Palestinians killed for every Israeli.

Since July 1, 381 Palestinians have died versus five Israelis.

Descriptions by B'Tselem and OCHA of the circumstances of these deaths show that approximately half of the Palestinians killed were civilians.

This year has seen by far the most skewed ratio of killings. While no deaths should be accepted, the figures show that the Israeli war machine has shifted gear.

During the second Palestinian intifada (uprising) from September 29, 2000, about 3.9 Palestinians were killed for every Israeli.

The highest previous multi-month ratio of Palestinians to Israelis killed during this intifada occurred from March to December 2004 when about 9.5 Palestinians were killed for every Israeli. In the first Palestinian intifada from 1987-92, 5.2 Palestinians were killed for every Israeli.

The increase in 2006 reversed the downward trend from 2005, the year with the lowest number of both Palestinian deaths (197), and Israeli deaths (50) during the uprising.

In April, with Hamas taking power, Palestinian deaths climbed back to 2004 levels. From July 1 to November 3, 2006, Israel has killed an average of 93 Palestinians a month, the highest monthly average since Israel's reinvasion of the West Bank in March/April 2002.

In 2006, unable to support the usual claim that it is responding defensively, the Israeli government has offered various unconvincing explanations for the large numbers of deaths.

But Israel's intensified violence seems intended to punish Palestinians for voting Hamas into power in democratic elections, and to restore Israeli self-esteem which was damaged by the failure of the war with Lebanon.

Israel' s shifting justifications are repeated with few questions asked by the mainstream media. First Israel said it was acting to stop Palestinians from firing homemade Qassam rockets into Israel, rockets that have killed just eight people within Israel over five years.

Later on, it said it was responding to last June's operation in which a single Israeli soldier was captured, though Israel holds 10,000 Palestinian prisoners.

News reports suggest that the on-going Israeli attacks may jeopardise the soldier's safe return. Now the Israeli government is again playing up Qassam rockets, and arms-smuggling into Gaza as justifications.