The war promises to be "long" and "intense." On his return from the Gaza Strip on Monday, December 25, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought to reassure his Likud party's members. Some had worried that the pace of the fighting had been slowing without the Israeli government's maximalist objective – destroying Hamas – having been achieved. The prime minister told them: "We're continuing to fight, and we're intensifying the fighting in the coming days. It's going to be a long war that's not close to ending." This is how he intends to retain the leadership of the radical right, which prefers the annihilation of the Islamist movement to the release of Israeli hostages.
These words came after the worst days in this war, which began on October 7 when Hamas attacked Israel. On the Palestinian side, 70 people were killed by an air strike on Sunday in the Maghazi refugee camp (in the center of the Gaza Strip) according to the local health ministry, which said in the evening that there had been 166 victims over the previous 24 hours. That number is as many as over the full six days of Israel's November 2012 "Operation Pillar of Defense." In total, the Gazan health ministry has estimated that nearly 20,500 Palestinians have died in the two and a half months of fighting.
On the Israeli side, 14 soldiers were killed over the weekend. Five of them were in their vehicle, attacked by a Hamas fighter with a rocket launcher in Gaza's south. Four others were killed by explosive devices – this attack's location was not specified by the army. On Saturday, members of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's armed wing, showed footage on their Telegram channel of themselves reusing unexploded Israeli rockets to target five Israeli tanks in the Jabaliya refugee camp, right next to Gaza City in the enclave's north. In total, 156 Israeli soldiers have lost their lives since the ground invasion of Gaza began on October 27. In recent days, the discovery of the bodies of five hostages who died in captivity has added to this grim toll, and, on Monday in the Knesset, the death of three others killed by the army earned Netanyahu heckling from the families of those still in Hamas hands.
This asymmetrical war is being waged in an uncertain environment, where conquered territories are never fully held, and where Hamas continues to set ambushes while avoiding direct confrontation, hoping to break the motivation of Israeli soldiers – who have been mobilized for many weeks – and sow doubt in Israeli public opinion as to the suitability of the operation. The organization has used a network of tunnels, the number and size of which never cease to surprise the Israeli army, and which have complicated its troops' advance.
You have 70% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.