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What Comes Next in the Gaza War?
(Times of Israel) David Horovitz - U.S. and other allied military chiefs are genuinely impressed by the tactical successes of the IDF in Gaza, yet they recognize that public and political support for Israel is plummeting as the Gaza death toll rises and the humanitarian crisis deepens. Those empathetic military chiefs say that they could not fight with greater precision in such complex urban circumstances. Israel also privately receives from Arab allies unstinting support to finish the job against Hamas - but they're not going to say this publicly. While the temporary pier the U.S. will build will enable U.S. aid to be brought into Gaza, the IDF, at this stage, does not know how the distribution of aid will be secured to prevent a repetition of the looting and chaos that have attended aid convoys, culminating in the deaths surrounding the Feb. 29 convoy. Before the IDF takes on the remaining Hamas battalions in Rafah, and evacuates Gazans from that warzone ahead of time, it must first complete its operations in Khan Yunis - partly because the Rafah evacuation plan requires that the IDF achieve overall security control in Khan Yunis. After the Rafah operation, the IDF will continue to be heavily deployed, with ever more accurate intelligence on Hamas' remaining capabilities. The capture of computer servers in Gaza City last month, for example, enabled the IDF to go back into areas where it had previously fought, with very specific information on remaining Hamas assets.