Very interesting analysis:
Israel ‘wants to injure Hamas but it doesn’t want to destroy Hamas’
Analysts have told Al Jazeera that Israel has no intention of destroying Hamas and that the continuing bombardment of Gaza will change nothing in the long term.
“The Israeli government has said that this will be a turning point. But I think, when the eventual ceasefire arrives, nothing will really change in the long term,” Martin Kear, Middle East analyst at the University of Sydney, said.
“Hamas will certainly be injured. I think Israel will seek to destroy as much of Hamas as possible while keeping enough of Hamas viable to administer the Gaza Strip.
“Israel, under my estimation, does not want to occupy Gaza, that will create an untenable security situation for Israel that it will not be prepared to be subjected to. It wants to injure Hamas but it doesn’t want to destroy Hamas,” he added.
I think Israel will not occupy or try anything silly like ground offensive in Gaza. They have already made that tiny strip a small prison. What would be the value added by adding a few sqkm but loosing thousands of their solders in ground offensive?
They are really playing mindgame with Hamas or anti Israeli forces to cause max damage to the Gaza people.