View: Israel needs to fight a smart war, have a smarter exit strategy

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Israel is pounding Gaza with bombs and rockets like never before. In over 26 days of the war, coined as ‘Operation Iron Swords’, Israel has already carried out more than 6,000 strikes, flattening buildings and infrastructure in Gaza.

On the night of 27/28th October itself, over 100 fighter aircrafts struck around 150 ‘underground targets’ in Northern Gaza. Targeted based ground raids with tanks and Armoured Personnel Carriers (APC) have been on for the past week to strike and knock out key Hamas leaders as well as command and communication installations in Gaza, especially Northern Gaza.

Israel has announced that its military operations are now in Phase-2 and are poised for further escalation. Some troops and formations are already in Gaza while the others wait on the border with Gaza, lined up for a full scale offensive.

In midst of all this, two major incidents have drawn worldwide condemnation of Israel’s military tactics.

First one was a reported Israeli bombardment on 17th October that struck al-Ahli Arab Hospital in central Gaza, killing an estimated 500 people, including patients and large number of civilians, who had sought refuge and safety in the complex. Although, Israel blamed the explosion to a misfired rocket launched by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the tragic incident was the first major trigger towards a changing narrative against Israel’s brutal and punitive tactics.

Again, on 31st October, an Israeli airstrike on the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza completely destroyed the camp, and at-least 50 killed. This time however, Israel owned up the strike stating that «elimination [of Hamas commander Ibrahim Biari] was carried out as part of a wide-scale strike on terrorists and terror infrastructure