<\/p>\n
The relentless Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip continues, with no obvious endgame in sight and no clear plan for how to govern the ravaged Palestinian enclave.<\/p>\n
Israel is vowing to wipe out Hamas in a relentless onslaught on the Gaza Strip but has no obvious endgame in sight, with no clear plan for how to govern the ravaged Palestinian enclave even if it triumphs.<\/p>\n
Codenamed \u201cOperation Swords of Iron\u201d, the military campaign will be unmatched in its ferocity and unlike anything Israel has carried out in Gaza in the past, according to eight regional and Western officials with knowledge of the conflict who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.<\/p>\n
Israel has called up a record 360,000 reservists and has been bombarding the tiny enclave non-stop following Hamas\u2019s surprise attack<\/a> on southern Israel on October 7, which killed about 1,400 people, according to officials.<\/p>\n The immediate Israeli strategy, said three regional officials familiar with discussions between the US and Middle Eastern leaders, is to destroy<\/a> Gaza\u2019s infrastructure, even at the cost of high civilian casualties, push the enclave\u2019s people towards the Egyptian border and go after Hamas by blowing up the labyrinth of underground tunnels the group has built to conduct its operations.<\/p>\n Israeli officials have said that they don\u2019t have a clear idea of what a post-war future might look like, though.<\/p>\n Some of US President Joe Biden\u2019s aides are concerned that while Israel may craft an effective plan to inflict lasting damage to Hamas, it has yet to formulate an exit strategy, a source in Washington familiar with the matter said.<\/p>\n Trips to Israel by US State Secretary Antony Blinken and US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin this past week had stressed<\/a> the need to focus on the post-war plan for Gaza, the source added.<\/p>\n Arab officials are also alarmed that Israel hasn\u2019t set out a clear plan for the future of the enclave, ruled by Hamas since 2006 and home to 2.3 million people.<\/p>\n \u201cIsrael doesn\u2019t have an endgame for Gaza. Their strategy is to drop thousands of bombs, destroy everything and go in, but then what? They have no exit strategy for the day after,\u201d said one regional security source.<\/p>\n An Israeli invasion has yet to start, but Gaza authorities say 3,500 Palestinians have already been killed by the aerial bombardment, around a third of them children \u2014 a larger death toll than in any previous conflict between Hamas and Israel.<\/p>\n Biden, on a visit<\/a> to Israel on Wednesday, told Israelis that justice needed to be served to Hamas, though he cautioned that after the 9\/11 attack on New York, the US had made mistakes.<\/p>\n The \u201cvast majority of Palestinians are not Hamas\u201d, he said. \u201cHamas does not represent the Palestinian people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Aaron David Miller, a Middle East expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said Biden\u2019s visit would have given him a chance to press Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu to think through issues such as the proportional use of force and the longer-term plans for Gaza before any invasion.<\/p>\n Israeli officials, including Netanyahu, have said they will wipe out Hamas in retribution for the October 7 attack.<\/p>\n What will follow is less defined.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are of course thinking and dealing with this, and this involves assessments and includes the National Security Council, the military and others about the end situation,\u201d Israeli National Security Council director Tzachi Hanegbi told reporters on Tuesday.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t know what this will be with certainty,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut what we do know is what there will not be,\u201d he said, referring to Israel\u2019s stated aim to eradicate Hamas.<\/p>\n This might be easier said than done.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an underground city of tunnels that make the Vietcong tunnels look like child\u2019s play,\u201d said the first regional source, referring to the Communist guerrilla force that defied US troops in Vietnam.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re not going to end Hamas with tanks and firepower,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Two regional military experts told Reuters<\/em> that Hamas\u2019s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, has mobilised for an invasion, setting up anti-tank mines and booby-trapped explosive devices to ambush troops.<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s coming offensive is set to be much bigger than past Gaza operations that Israeli officials had previously referred to as \u201cmowing the grass\u201d, degrading Hamas\u2019s military capabilities but not eliminating it.<\/p>\n Israel has fought three<\/a> previous conflicts with Hamas, in 2008-9, 2012 and 2014, and launched limited land invasions during two of those campaigns, but unlike today, Israel\u2019s leaders never vowed to destroy Hamas once and for all.<\/p>\n In those three confrontations, just under 4,000 Palestinians and fewer than 100 Israelis died.<\/p>\n There is less optimism in Washington, though, that Israel will be able to completely destroy Hamas and US officials see little chance that Israel will want to hold on to any Gaza territory or re-occupy it, the US source said.<\/p>\n A more likely scenario, the person said, would be for Israeli forces to kill or capture as many Hamas members as they can, blow up tunnels and rocket workshops, and then after Israeli casualties mount, look for a way to declare victory and exit.<\/p>\nCity of tunnels<\/h2>\n
Clouds of war<\/h2>\n