IN STARK contrast to their attack on Lebanon in 2006, Israeli forces prepared well in advance. And they know Gaza, which they occupied until 2005 and have since observed closely from the air.
The first stage consisted "shock and awe" tactics, bombing targets from the air. Some buildings were bombed more than once. Israeli pilots suggested to Ehud Barak, the defence minister, last week that they had run out of targets. But however sophisticated the weapons systems, air strikes are going to kill civilians, especially in such a densely populated territory as the Gaza Strip, where 1.5 million people live.
Israeli spokesmen have explained the deaths of civilians and destruction of mosques as the consequence of Hamas using human shields and harbouring weapons in religious buildings. The US has used similar arguments in Afghanistan, that other battleground of asymmetric warfare where air strikes have also led to civilian deaths.
In Afghanistan, the perpetrators of air strikes are worried about the adverse impact on the local population and how they rally support to the Taliban.
In Gaza, it seems very different. A week of aerial bombing killed more than 400 Palestinians and wounded many more. There has been no shortage of warnings to Israel about the danger of radicalising more Palestinians and Arabs elsewhere. Israel is making it clear that such considerations have no effect on its military tactics. It does not have to be interested in the long term, military analysts said yesterday.
Air strikes were designed to destroy Hamas's central military and administrative structures as well as fuelling a climate of shock and fear. But it is the second phase of Operation Cast Lead, the ground incursion of tanks and thousands of troops, which may prove more decisive in achieving Israel's stated war aim - to stop rocket attacks on Israel.
The purpose of Israeli tanks and troops are not only to attack targets from closer quarters but to hold the ground, including Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip where hundreds of rockets, albeit of limited range, have been fired at Israel.
The other specific aim is to split Gaza by cutting off the south, and the town of Rafah in particular, from Egypt, Gaza's only hinterland.
This is where many of the tunnels are and it is the route for supplying Hamas with longer range rockets. Apache helicopters have been attacking tunnels with bunker buster bombs, according to independent military observers.
The question now is: what next? Hamas says it has up to 20,000 fighters in small units of snipers and guerrillas with rocket launchers based in tunnels and wadis.
Maj Avital Leibovich, an Israeli military spokeswoman, said yesterday they were prepared to enter Gaza's cities "if necessary". But she did not say whether Israeli troops would do so.
Israeli forces do not want to be dragged into urban warfare, most military analysts agree. The more they did so the greater the risk, not only of casualties, but of abductions. "The further you get in, the more difficult it's going to become and the spectre of urban warfare looms on the horizon," said Col Christopher Langton of the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Israel clearly hopes its military tactics - bombing followed by armoured force on the ground, but no engagement in any kind of guerrilla or urban warfare - will stop most, if not all, of the rocket attacks. - ( Guardianservice)