The key to success is Israel's intention regarding the starvation blockade of Gaza. Once this blockade is fully lifted, the tunnels become much less significant. Maintaining these tunnels would have been an expensive exercise but over the last three years they became an economic activity in their own right. Hamas even used to levy a tax on goods that passed through them. Tunneling effectively became an industry.
The tunnels have been damaged but many of them are either operational now or can be returned to service. If Israel chooses to lift the blockade, there will be much less of an incentive for the tunnels to be repaired. If the blockade is maintained, then the tunnels will be rebuilt as a matter of necessity. The choice between starving or tunneling is effectively no choice at all.
A logical aftermath of this invasion is for the blockade to be lifted. However, Israel's actions in respect of Gaza show little evidence of logic. Goading Hamas into launching their puny rockets seems to be a deliberate ploy by Israel. While Hamas engages in this futile activity, Israel has an ongoing excuse to maintain subhuman conditions within the enclave. Is not one of the goals for the Zionists; depopulation of Palestinians? One way to work towards this goal is to make conditions increasingly intolerable for non Jewish inhabitants of occupied Palestine.
Palestinians show amazing, generational, resilience. They respond to Israel's deadly cull by producing larger families. My understanding is that the Palestinian/Israeli Arab population is larger now than it was in 1948. Removing the Palestinians is proving to be problematic for Israel.
Other inhabitants of Occupied Palestine may be easier to remove. By bombing, shelling and burning hospitals, schools and UN facilities, Israel is providing a powerful incentive for expats to leave. Israel has done all of these things and more. Unfortunately for them though, the propaganda machine has been unable to churn out enough credible lies. World opinion has steadily soured as the extent of Israeli brutality has slowly penetrated the media.
I expect Israel will attempt to maintain a starvation blockade of Gaza even in the face of world opinion. To me, Israel's intention is to keep Gaza unstable and its population in distress. I hope I'm wrong.
