They had a long time to plan and figure out where and what Hamas had. They learned alot from the summer 06 debacle. They tied in the UTUBE information campaign stuff, they targeted weapons caches and they figured out where the leadership was dug in. It appears they killed the leaders early on and very quickly. If u plan well, have superior weapons and tactics, casualties can be low. Hamas much like many arabs are poor conventional fighters. Yes they can IED or rocket u, they look good jump marching around in balaclava's but against Merkava 3's and well trained IDF soldiers, they suck.