While Hamas accepted the ceasefire with virtually none of its many demands met, Israel, for its part, did not succeed in imposing on the terrorist organization one of the central demands presented by Prime Minister Netanyahu as an objective of the operation: the demilitarization of Gaza and the establishment of mechanisms that would deny Hamas the ability to reconstruct its force. However, the latter goal, disregarded after previous rounds of fighting, must be central to Israel’s demands in the negotiations on a long term arrangement. The issue of Hamas’ force reconstruction must be brought back to center stage in the post-Operation Protective Edge era. The strategy now taking shape must ensure that any future military round against Hamas is postponed as much as possible, with Hamas’ strategic arsenal comprising capabilities Israel knows and for which it already has appropriate operational responses.
