To destroy Hamas, Israel must continue bombing Gaza

Israel has no other choice but to carry on bombing Gaza if it wants to destroy Hamas. Its campaign of relentless air strikes and long range artillery barrages has so far been effective at eroding Hamas’ military capability and limiting the Islamist group’s capacity to kill more Israelis.

Hamas has been unable to respond in any meaningful way since Israel’s offensive began. It has been limited to hit and run attacks, inflicting only relatively light casualties. Israel’s unrelenting bombardments, combined with the internet and mobile phone outages, will have caused chaos within Hamas’ command structure.

But the bombing campaign has come at a huge and terrible cost. Along with the catastrophic damage to residential neighbourhoods in Gaza, the latest figures suggest that up 10,000 Palestinian civilians have been killed, of which 4,000 are children. Earlier this week, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said Gaza had become a ‘graveyard for children’.