George Grylls, for the Times, writes about what a ground invasion of Gaza would look like, stating that “in Gaza, Hamas are likely to adopt insurgency tactics, positioning snipers in the windows of apartment blocks, using tripwires to set off IEDs and dropping grenades on armoured vehicles from above, while also disguising fighters as ordinary civilians… It seems likely that such an approach could inflict heavy losses on Israel.” On Hamas’s labyrinth of tunnels, nicknamed the ‘Gaza Metro’, Grylls writes, “to stop Hamas from using the tunnels to move AK-47s, grenades and rockets around the city, the IDF will need to locate the entrance and exit for each one, possibly using remote-controlled robots to map the booby-trapped underground infrastructure rather than risking soldiers’ lives by ordering them to clear the tunnels on foot.”

The Times and the Telegraph both cover reports that the IDF has adopted plans to block some of Hamas’s networks of tunnels under Gaza by firing sponge bombs, consisting of a chemical compound which forms a rapidly hardening foam.
 
Barbara Plett Usher, for the BBC, writes about how the delays to Israel’s ground offensive of Gaza benefits the US, as it tries to navigate the regional and global implications of this conflict. Plett Usher writes, “for the Pentagon the paramount concern is rushing defensive systems into the region following attacks on American forces in Iraq and Syria by Iran-backed militias… This [conflict] has increased concerns of a regional escalation once the Gaza invasion begins, and the US is using the delay to shore up protection for its interests.”
 
Meanwhile, Sky News, ITV News, the Times, the Financial Times, the Telegraph and the Standard all report on the US airstrikes against targets in eastern Syria on Thursday night.
 
Niall Ferguson, for the Times, writes about the risks of a global escalation to the Israel-Hamas conflict, stating that if “Israel finds it cannot contend with a three-front war in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon, and turns to the United States for military help against Iran, we shall have reached one of history’s hinges. The future of the world will turn on it.”
 
Sky News, the Times, the Independent and the Standard all report that UK Border Force officials have been sent to Egypt in the hope of evacuating British citizens trapped in Gaza before Israel mounts a ground invasion. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak promised that the government would do “everything we can to get our nationals out”, saying that about 200 British citizens had contacted the Foreign Office for help.

Israeli commentary is dominated by discussion of the merits of a ground invasion. Yediot Ahronot’s Yossi Yehoshua criticises Maj. Gen. (res.) Itzhak Brik who yesterday warned against such an operation on the grounds that Israel is unprepared. “The ground operation was not prepared yesterday or on October 7,” says Yehoshua. “It has been the primary item on the IDF agenda for two years, after the previous chief of staff, Lt. Gen. (res.) Aviv Kochavi, assigned the task to the best and most experienced commander imaginable, Brig. Gen. (res.) Chico Tamir… Tamir, who was commander of the Gaza Division, did not doodle plans in a room and send them by email. He was closely involved in the process, for example, the underground warfare. Put simply: the elite of the elite. There is no one better. And if anyone, respectable as they be, thinks that this will not be enough to contend with Hamas, then we can shutter the army and leave the country.”
 
Maariv’s Ben Caspit concurs: “IDF sources say that with all due respect to Brik’s scaremongering, he is not in touch with the present-day IDF. He has not been walking the staging grounds. He is unfamiliar with the power and resolve. He should stop talking and start doing. There is no scenario that will allow us to end the events in Gaza without going in. Israel will not be able to tolerate a victory parade two months from now in which Hamas leads a procession of hundreds of Israeli captives and hostages, surrounded by green flags. That will not happen. So yes, it will be tough, and there will be losses, and it will also be ugly, but it must happen. Whoever does not understand this is unfit. It’s that simple.”
 
Yehoshua’s Yediot Ahronot colleague Sima Kadmon differs, however. “It does not take much to see why Netanyahu is unfit to lead us into this war,” she writes. “The initial and primary question—whether an incursion into Gaza should be launched now at all—has barely been heard. As if this was the only and obvious option: to deploy fired-up regular soldiers who are hungry for vengeance and reservists who have nearly forgotten what war looks like through the gates of hell. So if you can express an opinion even if you are not a retired general making the rounds in the TV studios, I would like to hear more people talking about other options. For example, first bringing back all the hostages in exchange for all the security prisoners in our custody. Yes, everyone in exchange for everyone. Without long negotiations, just declaring in advance that this is our intention, in order to pressure the families of the imprisoned Hamas members. Let’s expose their true faces: is that not what they have been demanding all this time, to release their imprisoned members? Fine, we are ready. Give us back our captives, and we will give you back yours. Let’s see Hamas announce that it is turning down an opportunity to have all its imprisoned members released from Israeli jails.”
 
Yediot Ahronot’s Nahum Barnea also strikes a note of caution: “past wars have taught us that what begins with an outburst of patriotic fervour, with all for one and one for all, cools the moment that prices must be paid. Netanyahu knows this better than everyone. It is not cowardice that causes him to defer decisions again and again, but rather his deep understanding of public opinion polls. The Israelis’ weaknesses are his field of expertise. The decisions are hard because the prices are high. It’s easy to talk about the prices in general, noncommittal terms. It’s harder to do this in specific terms.”
 
Maariv and Haaretz feature an Israeli opinion poll consulting the public on the issue, which finds that 49 percent support waiting further to make the decision on a ground invasion, with 29 percent preferring to launch immediately. In last week’s poll 65 percent supported a “large-scale ground operation”.
 
In Haaretz, Itamar Rabinovich, deputy director of the Institute for National Security Studies and a former Israeli ambassador to the US, situates the conflict with as the first Israel-Iran war. “The situation,” he writes, “is fundamentally rooted in Iran’s aspiration to export the Islamic revolution, to seek regional hegemony and to revive the Persian imperialist legacy. It’s also rooted in aggression and a sense of persecution and in intense enmity toward Israel.”
 
In Israel Hayom, Ariel Kahana focusses on Israel’s western allies encouraging the Palestinian Authority (PA) to assume control of Gaza in the event that Hamas is toppled. Talks between allies and President Mahmoud Abbas’s government have gone “beyond principles and went into great detail,” writes Kahana. “Among other things,” he continues, “the PA representatives asked for recompense for their willingness to take back control of the Gaza Strip. Among their expectations: restrictions on Israeli construction in Judea and Samaria and recognition of the Palestinian state immediately upon the PA’s entry into the Gaza Strip.”
 
Yesterday, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid also called for the PA to assume control, as reported by Ynet. They should govern “with a very strong support system of the international community and the moderate Arab world,” he said. Lapid also said he understood those who argue that nine months of internal Israeli discord over judicial reform had weakened the country and contributed to the failure to anticipate Hamas’s attack, and the slow response to it. “I think when you are threatening Israel’s democracy,” he said, “you’re weakening the country. Democracy is the reason we have the inner strength we need to fight what we’re facing.” Asked whether the protest movement had contributed to this weakening, Lapid said the protestors had effected an “unbelievable operation helping everybody who was forced out of his home and the victims and the families of the victims. These are great Israeli patriots. They didn’t weaken this country, they have strengthened this country.”