Avoid a quagmire in the Gaza Strip

Israel's disengagement from the Gaza Strip is still far off, but Hamas has already managed to create the impression that preparations for evacuation are being carried out under fire. Despite the blows the group is suffering at the hands of the IDF, it and its partners are managing to heat up the atmosphere. The pace of military incidents on the ground is more intense than before and the number of Israeli casualties is greater. The battle for the Gaza Strip has become one of attrition, from Neveh Dekalim in the south to Beit Hanun and Dugit in the north.

After two children were killed by a Qassam rocket in Sderot on Wednesday, the Prime Minister's Office announced that Ariel Sharon had instructed the defense minister and the chief of staff to take immediate action against the groups firing the rockets and their leaders. This was a pathetic and unnecessary announcement, which makes it sound like the IDF has forgotten its task in protecting the citizens of Israel, requiring the prime minister to wake Shaul Mofaz and Moshe Ya'alon from their slumber.

Another announcement followed, this time that the IDF had divided the Gaza Strip into three parts. Such "divisions" have been undertaken innumerable times in the past. Every time the division was retained for a number of days and then stopped. Those firing the Qassams can do so even if the Gaza Strip is divided and with IDF forces, much larger than the ones currently deployed, are in the environs of Khan Yunis and the Jabalya refugee camp. Surely this does not offer even the slightest answer for the residents of Sderot.

The operational reality is much more complex and it is best to face it with eyes wide open. It is precisely because the weapons involved are primitive and simple that there is difficulty in dealing with it with technological means. The IDF has so far failed in its efforts to counter the problem posed by the Qassam rockets fired from the Gaza Strip. The IDF and the Shin Bet security services have also failed to shut down the workshops manufacturing the rockets, even though their numbers are not great.

As a result of these failures all sorts of suggestions are being proposed for aggressive and extreme operations. They are being heard not only from the residents of Sderot but also from government ministers. In one case, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz rejected the proposal on legal grounds. According to another proposal, every time a Qassam rocket is fired from the Gaza Strip against Israel the immediate response should be an artillery barrage against the area from which the rockets were launched, even if it's a location inside a Palestinian town. Such a response, its advocates argue, would result in the Palestinian population preventing the teams launching the rockets from entering their neighborhoods.

Another proposal calls on the IDF to create a "buffer zone" in the area from which the rockets are launched. Unlike previous such efforts, the proposal calls for a more extensive cleansing of the area, not merely of vegetation and groves but also of Palestinian residents. This approach would of course result in extensive razing of homes. The meaning of these proposals is that the war will only intensify and the losses will mount. It is possible that Hamas, which is the de facto ruler in the Gaza Strip, is interested in such escalation, but it is not in Israel's interest, which has decided on the disengagement.

Israel must protect itself by all means, but this does not mean it should seek to increase the number of Palestinian losses and sink deeper in the Gaza Strip quagmire.