After raining fire on the Gaza strip, Israel terminated its offensive just a few days before Obama took over. Israel was ruthless during these operations; before starting the war Israeli forces would have known that cities are the most difficult battlefields and that Hamas would hold a relative advantage, with terrain knowledge and local support. They knew that in densely populated areas of Gaza, Hamas would try every trick to outdo them: Hamas had long prepared a web of underground tunnels and many other hurdles for the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). Any ground offensive would be welcomed by various asymmetric tactics like booby traps, suicide bombers, Hamas cadre fighting in civilian clothes, human shields, etc. Thus, the Israelis should have come prepared with new tactics.

Unfortunately, the only preparation the IDF had appears to be its plan to convert Gaza into a laboratory to test its new weapons systems. It would be very difficult to say at this juncture whether the tools and tactics used by Israeli forces amounted to war crimes, as many are arguing, but one thing can be said with certitude: that the methods were ruthless and the weapons were extremely lethal.

There are indications Dense Inert Metal Explosives (DIME) have been used, for example. This is a new generation explosive: a small but extremely powerful weapon that detonates with extreme power. This power gets dissipated over a small range of five to 10 metres (16-98 feet). The argument given in support of this explosive is that it is useful for pinpoint targeting and minimises any collateral damage. However, it is difficult to understand how, over a thickly populated Gaza strip, Israeli forces planned to identify individual Hamas cadres and used DIME only against them.

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