June 19, 2012: the Palestinian skies lit up again with an exchange of rockets and air strikes between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, breaking the uneasy calm that had prevailed since March when Islamic Jihad had engaged in hostilities with Israel following the assassination of Zuhir al-Qaisi, the Secretary General of the Popular Resistance Committees. For critics of Hamas, its continued commitment to violence is the proverbial “red-line” inhibiting the possibility of any further progress in the Middle East Peace Process. Moreover, any attempts at finding rationality behind Hamas’s armed operations is either accorded by detractors to a radical ideological orientation or by sympathizers to violence being the (status quo) language and currency of the relationship with Israel. But while these claims could be based on the conflict’s observable realities, only a better understanding of Hamas as a social entity can truly contextualize and explain the inalienability of violence as part of the Palestinian groups’ operational arsenal.