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Victory in Gaza Is Up to the Israeli Public, Not the U.S.

(Ynet News) Ron Ben-Yishai - In recent discussions with senior IDF commanders, I got a clear impression that the IDF can achieve a decisive outcome in Gaza and accomplish the war's goals. However, achieving this will require at least several months to complete. Security experts believe that, at the moment, this doesn't depend on the U.S. but on Israeli public opinion, resilience, and political support. The destruction in northern Gaza is making it much harder for Hamas terrorists to come out from underground tunnels and fire at IDF forces. However, in the less densely populated Khan Yunis area and Hamas camps north of the city, tunnels are almost everywhere, making it easy for terrorists to operate from within them. The IDF has discovered that Hamas' underground facilities are 500% larger than previously estimated. As long as the IDF was moving, terrorists didn't rush to combat them but focused on laying explosives to ambush the troops. Now, as the IDF moves less and shifts to eliminating infrastructure, the terrorists are moving in their anti-tank units to target the IDF. The IDF and the Air Force can't fully employ their firepower in southern Gaza due to the number of safety zones for the civilian population scattered in the Khan Yunis area, with Hamas preventing them from escaping. There is also the desire not to harm Israeli hostages. Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar still believes he could pressure the international community to stop the fighting while leveraging the Israeli captives for more time. At Israel's northern border, the Air Force operates intensively to push Hizbullah away from the border fence. But it's clear that this can't be done solely from the air and will likely require a limited ground operation to distance Hizbullah not only beyond the current range of its anti-tank guided missiles (8 km.), but beyond it.
2023-12-24 00:00:00
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