Is Israel engaged in a “mission impossible” in Gaza? The stated aim of Operation Swords of Iron is to annihilate Hamas, but after more than two months of fighting and bombardment, that military objective would seem to be unrealistic.
With the firepower and combat experience at its disposal, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) will have started the full-scale war confident of its ability to destroy a terrorist organisation of between 30,000 and 40,000 members, all within a strictly limited territorial area.
