The ceasefire came into effect: Yesterday (Sunday) Israel strove to end Operation "Dawn", after the political level felt that its goals had been achieved. "Continuing the operation will do more harm than good," Prime Minister Lapid told the heads of authorities in the Gaza Strip, during a visit to the region together with Defense Minister Gantz and Chief of Staff Kochavi.
In Jerusalem, a list of achievements in the operation is listed: renewal and strengthening of deterrence against the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip;
landing a fatal blow on the Islamic Jihad, most of its military elite was eliminated;
A minimal amount of Israeli citizens affected;
a relative minority of Palestinian deaths, especially of uninvolved civilians;
keeping Hamas out of the campaign;
and international backing for IDF activities in the Gaza Strip.
Lapid, Gantz and senior members of the security establishment.
The goals were achieved, photo: Haim Tzach/L.A.M
Eliminations at the top
The assassination of Khaled Mansour, two days after the killing of his accomplice Taysir Jabri, leaves the Islamic Jihad without two of its senior and skilled field commanders, whose experience it needs, especially now, to manage the current campaign.
The assassinations of Jabari and Mansour will appear high on the list of Jihad's losses in this round, but they are only part of the price the organization pays for its provocation in Israel.
Merkava tank in action during the "Dawn" operation, photo: IDF spokesperson
Along with the (painful but tolerable) damage to his people and his abilities in the military field, he will have to deal with embarrassment, and a weakening of his status and the self-confidence of his leaders.
He will be required to explain to his activists his embarrassing error in assessing Israel's response and being surprised by it.
He will be required to stand in front of the pictures of the dead and wounded among the residents of Gaza, who were directly hit by fire fired by his squads.
He will not be able to escape the feeling of the burning insult that in this campaign he is once again left alone: without Hamas, without Hezbollah, and without being able to bring a riotous crowd to the streets in Israel.
Jabari (left) and Mansour in the Gaza Strip, photo: E.P
Countering terrorist tunnels
During the attacks on the night between Saturday and Sunday, the IDF thwarted an offensive terrorist tunnel of the Islamic Jihad, which was destroyed from the air using fighter jets.
During the last two days, the IDF attacked about 140 targets of the Islamic Jihad, including senior officials and activists who were eliminated and launch squads that were thwarted. Among the targets that were attacked: an attack tunnel, ten outposts, ten rocket launch pits, eight real-time countermeasure targets, six Amal warehouses. H and more.
IDF infantry forces in operational activity during Operation "Dawn", photo: IDF spokesperson
In the second day of the operation: about 580 rockets were launched, 470 crossed into Israeli territory, more than 120 rockets fell in Gaza, and one of them apparently killed the five children in Gaza.
About 200 interceptions were carried out with almost 97% success.
Documentation: The IDF destroys an Islamic Jihad tunnel in Gaza // Photo: IDF spokesperson
Victory in the propaganda battle
The killing of the four children in Jabaliya on Saturday night could have been a strategic event that changed the face of the campaign.
The difficult images of dead Palestinian children began to spread on social networks like wildfire, and the security establishment began to fear that the Israeli legitimacy for the continuation of the operation was in danger.
The IDF attacked military positions of the Islamic Jihad, several operatives were killed // Photo: IDF spokesperson
In the first minutes after the incident, it seemed that the train had left the station and the damage had already been done.
Even if Israel proves in plain sight that it is not responsible for killing the children, the truth will not change the established narrative.
However, unlike previous cases, this time the Israeli propaganda managed to get out of the situation.
About an hour after the incident, the IDF already began to hint that there is a more likely possibility that the children were not killed as a result of an Israeli bomb, but due to a failed launch of a rocket from the Gaza Strip. to the military correspondents.
The video that proves: the children in Jabaliya were killed by a Palestinian missile
The operation achieved its goals
As mentioned, there is a wall-to-wall agreement in the political-security elite that Operation "Dawn" has achieved its goals, and that efforts must be made to end it as soon as possible.
On Saturday, Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi, Shin Bet Chief Ronan Bar, and Security Intelligence Chief Aharon Haliva spoke on Saturday, in the discussion of the political-security cabinet that convened in Kirya in Tel Aviv. Prime Minister Yair Lapid and Defense Minister Benny Gantz also sided with the statements, and therefore it was agreed to activate all the mechanisms - political, intellectual, economic and security - in an attempt to formulate an outline that will allow the achievement of relaxation in the shortest possible time.
Documentation of the failed rocket fire by the GAF in Jabaliya // Photo: IDF spokesman
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