David Des Roches, a professor at the National Defence University in Washington, DC, has said Israel’s military strategy in Gaza remains uncertain as the execution of the operation “blends into a political strategy”, Al Jazeera reports.

The military goal is to prevent Hamas or any other organisation from being able to launch an attack from Gaza on Israel again and, at the same time, try to avoid Israel assuming the “burden” of being the occupying power in the Palestinian territory, Des Roches was quoted as saying.

“What that means is they have to find a way to make Hamas or any successor organisation incapable of coalescing into a military outfit, while at the same time somehow getting a Palestinian entity to govern this area and keep it quiet,” he said.

Des Roches also said that Israeli military operations to “root out Hamas fighters from the civilian population […] causes an immense amount of damage that fewer and fewer people regard as appropriate or proportionate or legal”, Al Jazeera added.