The Israeli military is preparing for a long operation against Hamas – and at the same time it must arm itself against a possible attack from Lebanon.
1 The Israeli government declared a state of war. What goals does she want to achieve with this?
The most obvious objective is to free kidnapped civilians and soldiers from the hands of Hamas. Furthermore, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he will destroy Hamas’ “military capabilities”. What this means in concrete terms, however, is not clear: would the organization “simply” have to be significantly weakened to no longer be capable of an attack like Saturday’s? Or is the objective to end Hamas’s dominance in the Gaza Strip?
In this case, Israel would have to reoccupy the Gaza Strip, which it vacated in 2005, at least in the short term – which would require enormous military resources. Some Israeli commentators call for the Palestinian Authority (PA), which governs parts of the West Bank, to become the de facto government of Gaza.