Thread by @sfrantzman

Thread: Israel worked hard to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza as it has increasingly done since 2014; but something has changed a bit over the last years. Israel’s attempt to manage the conflict with Hamas led to a desire for not having casualties among low level Hamas members

Israel says that it works hard, often with a lot of time invested in warning people to leave buildings before they are struck, which means Hamas members leave too. Israel says it does everything it can to avoid hurting civilians.

But the time taken to evacuate buildings means civilians and Hamas members evacuate. What’s strange is that there are mistakes where civilians are hit. It does appear Israel has worked hard to not have large numbers of militant casualties also.

He is that interesting? Because in the past Israel had targeted Hamas police officers for instance a decade ago. Now that doesn’t happen. Yet while Israel sought to hit infrastructure and command and control and things like tunnels. But not so many operatives.

That leaves questions about the civilians who were killed.

It also leaves questions about Israel’s policy. This is not an attrition war. Israel doesn’t want to prolong it. Hamas appears to know this also. This is mostly Hamas rockets versus Israel airstrikes on infrastructure

This is a kind of new war...this super precision and warnings and attempt for a war without casualties on both sides. Despite unprecedented rocket fire from Gaza. But even the best laid plans for a “clean” war doesn’t end that way

This leads to questions about the future of war in general and lessons learned. Israel may have reached a pinnacle of its attempt to “manage” war using tech and warnings and aborting attacks and air defense.