Gaza infrastructure under assault

Time:

Israeli officials have said in the past week that their main goal in the war against Hamas in Gaza is to destroy as many of what it calls “terror tunnels,” the underground passages built by the militant group that have repeatedly been used to infiltrate Israel. But following a day in which Hamas militants managed to kill 10 Israeli soldiers, Israel responded early Tuesday with massive air strikes that seemed aimed at both major infrastructure as well as the visible symbols of Hamas’s power in the Gaza Strip.

In overnight strikes by aircraft, tanks and navy gunboats, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) attacked 150 targets in Gaza during the night, including the home and office of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh’s home, the influential Shujaiyeh battalion commander’s home and the Ministry of Finance, as well as Al-Aqsa Radio and Al-Aqsa Television, two media outlets operated by Hamas. The IDF also said it attacked two Hamas command centers and four weapons storage sites hidden inside mosques and a tunnel.

Most prominently, it struck Gaza’s main power plant, all but destroying it. “The plant wasn’t working fully in the past few months due to shortages of fuel that comes from Israel,” Rafeeq Abu Maliha, the plant’s director, told reporters. “Three days ago Israel started to hit the station. The first time one missile hit the water and cooling engine. The second airstrike they hit the administration building. Last night’s strike was on [a] streaming engine, and in the morning today the tanks of fuel were hit and caused a huge fire in the station.” Gaza has been suffering from severe shortages of power for years,” he said, and many areas of the power plant hit over the course of the war were not currently repairable due to “access difficulties.”

Tunnels and rockets are easy for Israel to explain as military targets—both directly threaten Israeli citizens. But hitting the power plant as well as government and communications buildings might indicate that Israel is taking its “Operation Protective Edge” to a far more punishing level—a move some more conservative members in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government have long advocated. Economy Minister Naftali Bennett of the influential Bayit Hayehudi (Jewish Home) part on Tuesday said that simply destroying Hamas’ tunnel network isn’t enough, and called on Israel to continue the operation until Hamas loses control. “Hit Hamas without mercy,” Bennett said. “Day and night. On weekdays and holidays. Without respite and without rest. Until they are defeated.”
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I suspect the Israelis see the attacks on the infrastructure as a way of imposing a cost on Hamas for the continued firing of rockets at it s non combatants.  If it stops at destroying the tunnels and the rockets keep coming Israel has not achieved its objective.  If Hamas were really concerned about its people and infrastructure it would stop firing rockets at Israel.