In this round of conflict, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups in Gaza have fired some 1,400 rockets over almost all of Israel, driving millions into bomb shelters. For ten days Israel responded with air strikes focusing on the Hamas infrastructure, including launching sites, rocket production and storage facilities, command and control systems and underground tunnels. However, the rockets have continued unabated.

Only a ground operation can effectively deal with Hamas’s remaining military capabilities. Its aim is not to destroy Hamas as an entity – to do so Israel would have to conquer Gaza and stay there for a long time. And then, who would take over? Israel could find itself facing a Somalia or Iraq-like entity on its borders. Hamas is already challenged by jihadi groups, some of whom have sworn allegiance to ISIS.

A ground operation in Gaza is challenging even for a strong military such as Israel’s. Gaza is densely populated and Hamas and other armed factions there have prepared themselves with a network of underground tunnels and bunkers in urban areas and caches of weapons. They will try and kidnap Israeli soldiers or hit them with explosive charges, anti-tank rockets and suicide bombers.

Israel is well aware of these challenges. In this phase it is focusing its ground operation on targeting Hamas’s launching capabilities and web of tunnels dug from Gaza into Israeli territory. The tunnels are as deadly a threat as the rockets. As early as 2006, Hamas used a cross-border tunnel to attack Israel, killing two IDF soldiers and kidnapping a third, Gilad Shalit. Shalit was ultimately exchanged for over 1000 prisoners who had committed horrific crimes against Israeli citizens. For Hamas this was a strategic achievement, one it is keen to repeat.

Read the article in full at the Daily Telegraph.