Israeli army failed to destroy Palestinian rocket launch system: Analyst

JERUSALEM

A senior Israeli military analyst said on Friday that the Israeli army failed to thwart and destroy the Palestinian missile launch system during recent Israeli attacks on Gaza.

"The Israeli army has reset the conditions and rules of the game under which the conflict in the south (Gaza) has been conducted for recent decades, and from now on, the ball is in the hands of the political leadership in Israel," Ron Ben-Yishai, a military analyst, wrote at the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth.

“The Israeli army failed to thwart and destroy the missile launch system as many of the main strategic weapons of the hostile organizations in Gaza are still usable which allows Hamas and the (Islamic) Jihad to threaten Israel," he said.

"I allow myself to assume that the IDF (Israeli army) is also aware of the need to find a better offensive response to the missile threat,” he said.

Ben-Yishai said the awareness campaign led by Israel during the operation was less successful on the military side.

"Hamas has succeeded in illuminating and harnessing Palestinian youth, not only in Jerusalem but also in the West Bank, among Israeli Arabs, as well as in the Palestinian diaspora, especially the Lebanese,” he said.

In a series of data in recent days, the Israeli army said the Iron Dome system's success rate in intercepting rockets was 90%.

At least 243 Palestinians have been killed, including 66 children and 39 women, and more than 1,700 others injured in the Israeli attacks on Gaza.

Twelve Israelis have also been killed in rockets fired from the Gaza Strip.

Recent tensions that started in East Jerusalem during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan spread to Gaza as a result of Israeli assaults on worshippers in the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. It annexed the entire city in 1980 in a move never recognized by the international community.

* Bassel Barakat contributed to this report from Ankara.