A combat soldier leaving Gaza on Wednesday spoke of the uneasy feelings and images he had encountered, which he found difficult to put into words. You speak of an operation, he said, but in the field there is a war -- bombs, anti-tank missiles and lots of shooting. It is unsafe to enter houses because they could be booby-trapped, and it is unsafe to stay outside because of the snipers. The fighting is hard, but we are restricted. We are wary of hurting civilians, and concerned about abductions. They spoke to us a lot before going in about the threats, but nothing truly prepared us for what was waiting for us here. This authentic sense of the situation, relayed by the soldier, accurately describes events on the ground. After the military campaign ends, there will be time to ponder how Israel has handled Gaza over the past few years, but for those there right now, this is war, no less. Officially, Israel adheres to the categorization "operation" -- under the claim that a war is an event that usurps all of the national resources -- but when the country finds itself under siege, when international flights are canceled, over five million residents are under threat of rocket attacks for two and a half weeks, tens of thousands of reserve soldiers are called to duty, and the real cost to the Israeli economy will stand at many billions of shekels -- one can certainly question the definition and wonder if this is not a "campaign," at the very least. As of Wednesday, the Israel Defense Forces was continuing to focus on the underground tunnels. At the beginning of the week, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon said "two or three days" would be required to finish this task. A senior officer said yesterday that Israel needs one to two weeks. Out of all the terror tunnels that have already crossed into Israeli territory, the IDF has already dealt with seven. Several have already been neutralized; the others will be destroyed today or tomorrow. The other tunnels are within reach; some are in close proximity -- the forces have found the openings, and only need to map out the full layout in order to neutralize the entire structure. There are other tunnels, meanwhile, of which the army is aware: The intelligence information is there, but the fighting on the ground, to this point, has not allowed the forces to begin demolishing them. The most prominent tunnel thus far was located yesterday in Shujaiyya. It originates in a Palestinian home and ends in Kibbutz Nahal Oz. From the IDF's perspective, the equation is simple: The 20 Golani soldiers who died in the fight for this tunnel saved 20 civilian lives. On the way, on the outskirts of Shujaiyya the forces located another tunnel, which they did not have prior intelligence about. In northern Gaza another unit found a tunnel opening 31 meters (102 feet) deep -- a local record -- inside a cowshed, under the cows. Finding the tunnel openings sometimes seems to be the easy part of the job. Many of them were rigged with explosives that needed to be neutralized before the troops could go inside. This type of work takes hours, sometimes days, after which the army needs to map out the tunnel's route -- from Palestinian territory into Israel -- before demolition. Before they leave Gaza, forces are preparing to complete the treatment of all the tunnels which have been found; the tunnels that remain will be handled from inside Israel. It is clear to Israel that the tunnels (and rockets) must be included in the cease-fire agreement with Hamas. On the other hand, it is clear the organization will not hold up its end of the deal if an effective oversight mechanism in Gaza and considerable deterrents are not put in place. The decision makers are currently arguing this very issue: Have we already reached the point where Hamas -- despite its fighting spirit and declarations of victory -- has been damaged enough to maintain quiet for a significant period of time down the road- Simultaneous and contradictory messages The answer to this question is not cut and dry, and therefore Israel is sending simultaneous (and contradictory) messages: Officially, the cabinet is discussing the possibility of expanding the army's activity on the ground; in reality it has been made clear to international mediators that Israel is interested in ending the battle. This tango, however, needs two, and it is possible that similar to exactly one week ago -- with the tunnel attack near Sufa that led to the ground operation -- Hamas will play a wild card and force Israel into a situation in which it must, against its declared intentions, deepen its Gaza campaign even further.
