Can the occupying state achieve the goals set by the government for the aggression against Gaza? Today, after 111 days of war against the Gaza Strip, it seems clear that the occupation army is unable and weaker to achieve the two main goals that it announced at the beginning: eliminating Hamas and returning all Israeli hostages, in light of continued military pressure.

In this context, the prominent intelligence analyst, Yossi Melman, saw in the Hebrew newspaper (Haaretz) that the talk is about goals that cannot be achieved in any way, adding that the goals are nothing more than empty and vague slogans launched by Israeli politicians from personal standpoints, and that it is Impossible to reach, as he put it.

He added: “Victory cannot be achieved without specific goals, and therefore the war will not stop unless several developments occur, including the withdrawal of Ministers Gadi Eisenkot and Benny Gantz from the government, and the enemy of the masses towards the entity to demonstrate in the streets, which will force decision makers to provide the date of the general elections,” explaining that “the chances of this scenario occurring are weak, and therefore the displaced from (the Gaza envelope) will not be able to return to their homes in the near term, and in return, Hezbollah will continue the bombing in the north, and thus will prevent the residents of the border settlements from returning to their homes.”

In connection with the above, writer Anshel Baber said in Haaretz, “A number of officers from various ranks in the Israeli army believe that the tunnel network in the Gaza Strip is much larger and more complex than initially estimated.” Moreover, there is increasing conviction among senior officials in the Israeli army that their forces will not destroy all, not even most of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad tunnels in the Gaza Strip.”

He added: “The tunnels existed in Gaza before the establishment of Hamas in 1987, and it is now clear that, for the most part, they will remain in place after the current war.”

He continued: “More than ten years have passed since the discovery of the first tunnel near the Erez Crossing in 2005, before the security establishment began the work of constructing the underground obstacle, and work on establishing the obstacle was completed at the end of 2021, with great promises, and the security leadership was certain “It will prevent any large-scale attack on Israeli territory.”

The writer quoted an intelligence source who has been following Hamas for many years: “The obstacle led to the decline of the issue of tunnels inside the Gaza Strip on the army’s list of priorities.” That doesn't mean we didn't care. But there was an impression in the security establishment that as long as these tunnels did not cross the border, they did not pose a threat to us.” But the obstacle did not pass the test on October 7, and the above-ground wall was abandoned, and the tunnels inside the Strip swallowed more than 150 kidnapped persons.”

The writer, whose article was reported by the Institute for Palestine Studies in Al-Arabiya, stressed that “the assumption that (operationally seizing) the land above the tunnels for several weeks will force Hamas members to leave them due to the loss of oxygen, water, and food, turned out to be a wrong assumption, as it became clear that the tunnels “Not only are well supplied with food and drink for a long stay, but it allowed the movement of troops between several areas of the city, and in the Strip.”

He pointed out, “Throughout the war, the army announced the destruction of the Hamas brigades in the northern Gaza Strip, but it found itself fighting the remnants of these brigades in other areas.” Every time there was evidence of the presence of kidnapped people in the tunnels, it turned out that they had been transferred from there to another tunnel some time ago.”

He also said: “Last week, the New York Times quoted senior officials in the security establishment as estimating that the length of the tunnel network in the Gaza Strip was estimated at 700 km, and this is in contrast to intelligence estimates that reached 400 km at the beginning of the war.”

He added: “In recent weeks, instead of seeking to destroy the entire network of tunnels under Gaza, the army set a new goal: preventing Hamas from military use of the tunnels in the future. But it is not clear how to do this, and if all the central tunnels were discovered, and even those that were discovered, there would not be time to destroy them. So far, the army has found 1,000 tunnel openings throughout the Strip. It is plausible that there are thousands more that have not been detected, and it seems that the resistance fighters can remove the fill from the openings and restore the tunnel network.”

He concluded: “The security establishment must acknowledge that destroying the tunnels was an unrealistic goal from the beginning. Perhaps the army can confront them as a military threat, but these tunnels will remain under Gaza,” as he put it.