Some military sources speculate that the IDF may eventually be asked to oversee a controlled return of the Gaza populace to their largely ruined home areas, under a process that would necessitate screening the returnees to ensure that Hamas forces do not simply come back with them.

However nice in theory, the idea is impractical. The IDF is not capable of controlling, much less screening, large masses of civilians.

Evidence of that inability has been a terrible daily reality these past few weeks, with dozens upon dozens of Gazans reported killed in the areas surrounding the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s aid distribution hubs.

Military sources have insisted, as regards most of these incidents, that IDF troops have not fired inside, at or immediately outside the distribution points, but acknowledge firing “warning shots” when facing large crowds of Gazans heading toward the aid hubs outside the designated routes and outside the designated opening hours.

As far as the aid is concerned, the IDF has taken responsibility for safeguarding the GHF operation — in a framework that supersedes the UN, and thus renders Israel the prime responsible address for the feeding of Gazans.

But it is not trained or equipped to fully do so.

The result is that a hurriedly constructed program, intended to prevent Hamas’s ongoing looting of aid, is proving bloody and intermittently unworkable in practice, with Hamas predictably doing everything in its power to destroy the effort, and the IDF facing off against huge crowds of desperate Gazans.


Hamas must not be allowed to reconstitute itself. Even now:
1. it maintains a rule of fear in parts of Gaza,
2. is able to loose off the occasional rocket,
3. and can drop the occasional explosive drone on troops.
4. Its “destroy Israel” ambition is undimmed.

Ending this war would and should not mean ending the battle against Hamas; it will, without doubt, provide Israel with innumerable essential reasons to relentlessly target it in the future, and Israel will know better than to encourage Qatar to fund it.