HERB KEINON
It’s a throwaway phrase politicians and military leaders use often when talking about the goals of the Gaza war: degrade Hamas’s capabilities so they can’t carry out another October 7 attack.
Most Israelis hear that, shake their head in agreement but don’t really know what that means or looks like.
A four-hour IDF-organized visit Monday with a group of Israeli journalists to what remains of the outskirts of Gaza City’s Shejaia neighborhood – once a Hamas stronghold – helped clarify the picture.
The degrading of Hamas’s ability to carry out another October 7 means bulldozing down any structures, industrial or residential, within a kilometer of the border fence. It means destroying city blocks to get to tunnels. And it means uprooting Hamas tunnels – not merely blowing up their shafts, but digging deep down into the earth to completely uproot those tunnels.
“We are working intensely to destroy all Hamas’s infrastructure to make sure that it will not be able to reestablish itself for years,” said Lt.-Col Gideon Ellastam, the deputy commander of the Paratroopers Brigade. “We are clearing out the territory, both above and below the ground, to take away their capabilities. The objective is to create a completely different security situation to enable the Israeli residents of the border communities to return home.”
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