As Israel Prepares Massive Ground Campaign, the End Game Remains Opaque

Winfield Myers

It seems inevitable that Israel will embark on a massive ground operation in Gaza in the coming days, potentially its largest in four decades.

Israeli leaders haven’t exactly tried to hide what’s coming. The IDF said on Saturday it was finalizing its preparations for a “coordinated attack from the air, sea and land.”

The Israeli Air Force has been flying top ground forces commanders over the Gaza Strip to familiarize them with the territory and provide them a bird’s eye view of the territory in which the military is expected to maneuver, The Times of Israel learned on Sunday. Brigade and battalion commanders were shown, from combat helicopters, where ground troops are expected to enter and advance during the looming ground offensive.

Read the full article at the Times of Israel.

Lazar Berman is the Times of Israel‘s diplomatic reporter and a Ginsburg/Milstein Writing Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

Lazar Berman is the diplomatic correspondent at the Times of Israel, where he also covers Christian Affairs. He holds an M.A. in Security Studies from Georgetown University and taught at Salahuddin University in Iraqi Kurdistan. Berman is a reserve captain in the IDF’s Commando Brigade and served in a Bedouin unit during his active service.
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I recently witnessed something I haven’t seen in a long time. On Friday, August 16, 2024, a group of pro-Hamas activists packed up their signs and went home in the face of spirited and non-violent opposition from a coalition of pro-American Iranians and American Jews. The last time I saw anything like that happen was in 2006 or 2007, when I led a crowd of Israel supporters in chants in order to silence a heckler standing on the sidewalk near the town common in Amherst, Massachusetts. The ridicule was enough to prompt him and his fellow anti-Israel activists to walk away, as we cheered their departure. It was glorious.