Israel prepares for a long war in Gaza

As 2023 drawsIDFIDF IDF to a close, Israel’s forces in the Gaza Strip are deployed across the territory to their farthest extent. An armoured division of the Israel Defence Forces () is operating in the quarter of Gaza city where Israeli intelligence believes the last intact battalion of Hamas’s armed force is holding out. Farther south, seven brigade combat teams have converged on Khan Younis, Gaza’s second city, where Hamas’s leadership and most of nearly 130 Israeli hostages are assumed to be. Other brigades are attacking Hamas strongholds in towns across central and southern Gaza. Israeli commanders acknowledge behind the scenes that these may be the last wide-scale offensives of the war.In recent weeks the has been taking journalists (including your correspondent) into tunnels dug by Hamas beneath Gaza. The main purpose of these organised trips is to reinforce the message that the Islamist movement that has ruled Gaza for over 16 years has built its military infrastructure under Gaza’s civilian population, including hospitals and schools. The has sought to show that Hamas has wasted precious resources on a subterranean kingdom while the civilian population languishes in poverty.