Israel has to do something different when it comes to Gaza – analysis

Ashdod, Ashkelon, Sderot, Nir Am, Nir Oz, Beeri, Karmia, Netiv Ha’asara, Beer Ganim, Beit Shikma… the list of municipalities under attack is long. 

Rockets were fired throughout the day on Tuesday, one every three minutes the IDF said.

Thousands of Israelis are in bomb shelters. 

Schools have been closed, and businesses only allowed to remain open if they have easily accessible shelters.

Former chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot said that “Deterrence isn’t built in a day and it doesn’t disappear in a day” but in terms of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, it sure seems like it.

Walking around Sderot in the afternoon, there were interceptions of rockets every few minutes.

But the few residents who ventured outside didn’t even raise their heads to see where the boom had come from. 

It’s eerie. 

Driving in the South on Tuesday, the roads are almost empty.  

Many of them are blocked by military police out of concern that Hamas and PIJ might target civilian vehicles with anti-tank guided missiles, like PIJ did on Monday.

But if you can get past the blockades, all you see are military vehicles carrying troops or munitions. 

On one road close to Sderot, I drove past a convoy of 15 trucks carrying artillery shells for the batteries deployed in the area.

In the various nature reserves which dot the Shaar Hanegev Regional Council, dozens of troops can be seen. 

Many of them, from Maglan, Givati and other units, were dispatched to the south as reinforcements for the Gaza Division.

Speaking to troops, you get the feeling that another war is about to start. 

“We have to hit them hard. We can’t be suckers anymore,” one officer told me.

“We don’t want to enter Gaza,” a Givati soldier blocking a road towards Beeri said. “But if we have to we will.”

Commenting on the violence that rocked Lod and Ramla, a soldier from the Nahal division said that the clashes on the Temple Mount was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

“People are fed up,” she said. “The corona pandemic is over and tempers are flaring. The Gazans are no different, they are fed up and they need to vent. Unfortunately we are the address of their anger.” 

None of the soldiers I spoke to today ever took part in a military operation, and none have ever entered Gaza. 

The officer I spoke to enlisted just a few months after Protective Edge ended, while the Givati soldiers I met enlisted in the IDF only six months ago.

Operation Protective Edge was the last time Israel entered Gaza, in 2014. Neither side won. Should Israel decide to conduct a ground operation, it’s highly likely nothing will change.

Both sides will lose combatants. Civilians will die. Hamas will remain. So will Islamic Jihad. 

What has changed are their capabilities. Israel has better missile defenses and intelligence. Hamas has more advanced rockets. 

So what is Israel to do? Send those same Nahal and Givati soldiers into Gaza? What would that achieve? 

The IDF has to do something different. It has to be more creative, and not just with the names it gives military operations.