Israel Is Winning the Battle with Hamas, but It’s Far from Over

The war Israel is fighting in Gaza is in many ways without precedent in the history of warfare, involving simultaneous combat both on the ground and below ground, against an enemy that has deeply embedded itself into the civilian infrastructure. In all of Israel, Yaakov Amidror observes in a highly revealing briefing, there is insufficient dynamite to destroy all of Hamas’s tunnels. That, he explains, accounts for the apparent slowness of Israel’s progress into Hamas’s strongholds. Among much else, Amidror outlines why the IDF’s repeated clashes with Hamas in the northern parts of the Strip (e.g., the recent fighting in Jabaliya) are signs of its success rather than its failures; what Israeli officials mean when they speak about “dismantling” Hamas; and how he knows that Palestinian civilians trust the IDF not to attack designated safe zones. He also addresses the problems entailed in confronting Hizballah in the north. (Video, 69 minutes.)