Israel’s Dangerous Escalation in Gaza

Over the past few weeks, Israel’s 20-month-old military campaign in the Gaza Strip has reached another crux point. On March 18, the IDF restarted the offensive with ambitious new goals that included targeting Hamas’s remaining civil bureaucracy as well as its fighters and ratcheting up pressure on the organization by halting the entrance of humanitarian aid—which Hamas has weaponized to control the Gazan population and rebuild its military. Then, on May 4, the Israeli cabinet approved a more far-reaching plan that envisions not only totally defeating Hamas, but also seizing and holding the entire Strip in what could amount to indefinite military control. Although this recent operation has only begun, it has already highlighted the dangers of the war’s relentless expansion and put Israel under extraordinary political, social, economic, and moral pressure...

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