It’s hard to keep on top of this.
The IDF has left Gaza, although they say that “operations will continue”. Palestinians have suffered about 110 killed; according to the IDF, the great majority were Hamas guerrillas. Israel has lost two soldiers. The IDF uncovered large quantities of weapons and explosives.
The much-vaunted “Hezbollah-like” fortifications, weapons and tactics apparently did not pose a big problem to the IDF.
Hamas has claimed victory; a spokesman said that the IDF was unable to defeat their fighters and so chose to massacre civilians. Total nonsense, but their friends believe it.
Rocket fire, both Qassams and Grad missiles, is continuing.
The fact that the IDF withdrew so quickly without achieving what had to be the major objective — stopping the rocket fire — means that the Israeli government has given in to pressure from the US.
This appears to have been a relatively clean military operation with minimal civilian casualties, given the fact that Hamas was deliberately fighting from civilian areas. Nevertheless, Israel was not permitted to fight.
The terrorist news organizations BBC and Reuters continue to support Hamas. I’m not going to include links; you can find them if you care.
The good news: the IDF has learned the lessons of the 2006 war and is prepared to deal with whatever Hamas and probably Hezbollah can throw at it.
The bad: the Israeli government cannot even minimally stand up to US pressure. More than any other factor, this imperils the state.