After ten bloody and terrible days of conflict, the Israeli government announced a cease fire that went into effect at 2 am. Hamas also agreed to the cease fire terms through international mediation that was largely brokered by Egypt. The truce is fragile, but so far seems to be holding. I can't help but feel that for all the IDF's military successes in damaging Hamas's "metro" tunnel network and eliminating its numerous rocket producing factors, there was still much that could have been done. The top leaders of Hamas all mostly managed to survive the fighting in hiding, and most importantly continued to maintain the capacity to fire rockets at Israel until the last moment. Similar to 2014, the military threat from Hamas in Gaza was not removed, just severely degraded. For now. Which means it's only a matter of time before Hamas rearms and advances its weaponry once more.
While there was no ground incursion into Gaza, this current round of fighting saw the most rockets fired at the Israeli home front than in any previous war or operation. It's clear that Hamas has earned a significant victory by not only asserting power in the Palestinian arena but also demonstrating that they are the main resistance movement that is seen in the Arab world as standing up for Jerusalem and Palestinians. For Israel, it's a very different perspective. Hamas still represents an entrenched terror organization in control of a terror state in Gaza that has never moderated and continues in its stated goal of attempting to destroy the Jewish state. The Israeli government takes the situation very seriously, but there is no indication that the conclusion of this latest round will result in anything different in the future. The same problems still exist and it is only a question of time before the conflict between the two parties flares up again.
No comments:
Post a Comment