With a cease-fire holding and all troops reportedly withdrawn from Gaza, a BuzzFeed reporter in Israel spoke to “nearly a dozen” soldiers who had been deployed in Gaza ground operations. They are, apparently, not optimistic:
Some were happier to leave than others, some felt troubled, while a few soldiers said they scarred by what they had seen during the weeks of fighting. All, however, expressed frustration at a “job not yet done” and seemed certain they would soon find themselves back in the Gaza Strip.
Representatives of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) say operations are finished now that all known tunnels between Israel and Gaza have been destroyed, but it’s not clear what kind of long-term security solution will be put in place. Haaretz reports that prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will push for an internationally supervised demilitarization and rebuilding process.
“We can’t go on like this, fighting a war every few years,” a 24-year-old reserve army officer named Raz Carmi told BuzzFeed, “and each time they get more advanced and we get more advanced at killing each other. Something has got to give.”
