What would a ‘full-scale war’ between Israel and Palestine look like?
Israeli military planning for first ground conflict in Gaza since 2014

Israeli forces last night destroyed a Hamas tunnel system in Gaza in the largest single military operation since violence broke out between the old enemies earlier this week.
The midnight assault lasted for 40 minutes and involved 160 Israeli war planes, multiple tanks and three brigades of ground troops, according to a spokesperson for the Israel Defence Force (IDF). An initial statement by the military appeared to confirm that troops had crossed the border into Gaza, but a spokesperson later said that was not the case.
The biggest assault yet in the five-day battle came after the UN’s special envoy for the Middle East peace process, Tor Wennesland, warned that the violence was “escalating towards a full-scale war”. The Times reports that Israeli “plans for a possible invasion” of the Palestinian territory are understood to have been “put before” the general staff of the IDF, “before going to the security cabinet”.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Coming storm
Eyewitness in Gaza told The Washington Post that “intense, almost continuous airstrikes began to pound the northern Gaza Strip” at around midnight on Thursday, with tanks firing “approximately 50 rounds into the enclave”.
Military spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said the aim of the operation was “to deliver a severe blow to Hamas’s underground tunnel system, which we refer to as the ‘metro’, which is essentially a city beneath the city of Gaza”.
He added: “It is a strategic asset that Hamas has invested many years of effort and time and significant resources to construct.”
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Hamas retaliated by firing around 55 rockets from Gaza overnight, according to the Israeli authorities.
Meanwhile, “a new front has opened in the military showdown”, as “a wave of mob violence” between Jews and Arabs spreads across several Israeli cities, prompting “riots and attacks in the streets”, The New York Times (NYT) reports.
“Rival Jewish and Arab mobs attacked people, cars, shops, offices and hotels,” the paper continues. Israeli television captured “one of the most chilling incidents”, when “dozens of Jewish extremists took turns beating and kicking a man presumed to be an Arab, even as his body lay motionless on the ground”.
In a televised speech last night, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his forces were fighting “a campaign on two fronts”, one of which was Gaza. “The second front - Israel’s cities,” he continued, before vowing to deploy the military to prevent the “anarchy” of mob violence.
Hours later, the sky was lit up by rockets fired from Gaza, most of which the Israeli military said were intercepted by its “Iron Dome” defence system.
On the other side of the conflict, the Hamas Health Ministry said that at least 119 people, including 31 children, have been killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza this week.
With “neither side showing signs of giving up” despite the growing death toll, fears are mounting that “the current conflict will escalate into one similar to the seven-week 2014 Gaza War”, says Sky News.
Militant Islamist group Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2006, has “called for a full-scale Palestinian intifada”, the broadcaster adds - raising the spectre of the last such uprising, in 2000, which lasted for five years and claimed the lives of around 4,300 people, most of them Palestinian.
Against this backdrop, the IDF has said that its “marching orders” are to intensify operations. Spokesperson Lieutenant Conricus added: “We will continue to operate to attack their military infrastructure and prepare additional activities until they get the message.”
‘Full-scale war’
The last time Israel launched a military incursion into Gaza, in July 2014, the conflict was triggered by the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers by Hamas members. What followed was “one of the deadliest conflicts between the two sides in decades, with thousands dying - mostly Gazans”, Sky News reports.
Most of those lives were lost in “Israeli airstrikes and ground bombardments and Palestinian rocket attacks”, the broadcaster continues. And the feared impending war could be even bloodier, with “Hamas rockets going much further into Israel” now.
In February, the International Criminal Court ruled that it had jurisdiction over the Palestinian territories, meaning a trial will follow into whether Israel and Hamas committed war crimes during the 2014 conflict. Despite the threat of potential legal consequences, however, “the latest round of fighting between the bitter enemies has already begun to resemble - and even exceed [that] devastating 50-day war”, says Associated Press.
An Israeli military official told the NYT on Wednesday that three infantry brigades were “preparing for a worst-case scenario”, confirming that a ground invasion could follow the bombardment from the air. Meanwhile, Netanyahu “said Israel had rejected requests from Hamas to negotiate a ceasefire and estimated that the Gaza operation would last at least another week”, The Washington Post reports.
As the sudden explosion of violence turns a dispute confined to Jerusalem into a “full-scale aerial war ” over Gaza, “some of the country’s most experienced leaders” have warned that the decades-old Israel-Palestinian conflict is “heading into new territory”, adds the NYT.
“What was maybe under the surface has now exploded,” said Tzipi Livni, an ex-cabinet minister and former chief negotiator in peace talks with the Palestinians.
“I don’t want to use the words ‘civil war’,” she told the paper. “But this is something that is new, this is unbearable, this is horrific, and I’m very worried.”
-
What's at stake in the Mahmoud Khalil deportation fight?
Talking Points Vague accusations and First Amendment concerns
By Joel Mathis, The Week US Published
-
Why is a new Air Force One taking so long to build?
The Explainer Trump may look for alternatives for his new plane
By Joel Mathis, The Week US Published
-
New and notable podcasts for March
Feature The MeidasTouch Podcast and The Magnificent Others With Billy Corgan
By The Week US Published
-
Ukrainian election: who could replace Zelenskyy?
The Explainer Donald Trump's 'dictator' jibe raises pressure on Ukraine to the polls while the country is under martial law
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Why Serbian protesters set off smoke bombs in parliament
THE EXPLAINER Ongoing anti-corruption protests erupted into full view this week as Serbian protesters threw the country's legislature into chaos
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Arab leaders embrace Egypt's Gaza rebuilding plan
Speed Read The $53 billion proposal would rebuild Gaza without displacing Palestinian residents
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Mountains of garbage are creating more hazards in Gaza
under the radar Gaza was already creating 1,700 tons of waste daily prior to the war
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
Why is Netanyahu pushing into the West Bank now?
TODAY'S BIG QUESTION Israeli tanks have entered some Palestinian cities for the first time in decades. What's behind this latest assault on the occupied territory, and where could it lead if left unchecked?
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
The optics of Hamas' hostage releases
In The Spotlight 'Release certificates' and 'gift bags' part of 'strategic choreography' of prisoner swaps
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Hamas pauses Gaza hostage release, upending ceasefire
Speed Read Hamas postponed the next scheduled hostage release 'until further notice,' accusing Israel of breaking the terms of their ceasefire deal
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
'Riviera of the Middle East': what does Trump's Gaza plan mean for the region?
Today's Big Question Suggestion that the US take over and redevelop the war-torn region, and displace its Palestinian residents, has been condemned by Arab allies but welcomed by Israel
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published