Mentioned repeatedly in the Bible, as well as in other ancient texts, the fortress city of Lachish was one of the most important locales in biblical Israel. Archaeologists have been exploring its ruins since the 1930s, but have only recently discovered a fortified wall that has been dated to the 10th century BCE. The Times of Israel reports:

Yosef Garfinkel, head of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Institute of Archaeology, announced the find at a conference two weeks ago. . . . The discovery, he argued, bolsters the account in the book of Chronicles of the city during the reign of [Solomon’s son and successor], the 10th-century-BCE king Rehoboam, which says: “And Rehoboam dwelt in Jerusalem, and built cities for defense in Judah: he built even Bethlehem, and Etam, and Tekoa, . . . and Lachish, . . . and Hebron, which are in Judah and in Benjamin, fortified cities.”

“During the Late Bronze Age, Lachish was a very large, grand Canaanite city. Then in the 12th century BCE, it was destroyed, and stood waste for 200 or 250 years,” said Garfinkel. “The big question for research in the city is what happened in Layer 5, [which could date to either the 9th or 10th century]. We found a wall between Layer 6 and Layer 4. Later the excavators reached a floor that stretches to the wall, which could be dated using olive pits found beneath the floors. Samples of the pits were sent to the particle accelerator at Oxford, which ruled that the wall had been built around 920 BCE, which was exactly the reign of Rehoboam.”

A fortress built at this time would suggest that the Judean kingdom had its origins in the 10th century—when David, Solomon, and Rehoboam would have lived—rather than the 9th, as many scholars believe. To some of those scholars, Garfinkel’s claims are not conclusive.

Robert Clark explains why the resumption of hostilities is both just and necessary:

These latest Israeli strikes come after weeks of consistent Palestinian provocation; they have repeatedly broken the terms of the cease-fire which they claimed they were so desperate for. There have been numerous [unsuccessful] bus bombings near Tel Aviv and Palestinian-instigated clashes in the West Bank. Fifty-nine Israeli hostages are still held in captivity.

In fact, Hamas and their Palestinian supporters . . . have always known that they can sit back, parade dead Israeli hostages live on social media, and receive hundreds of their own convicted terrorists and murderers back in return. They believed they could get away with the October 7 pogrom.

One hopes Hamas’s leaders will get the message. Meanwhile, many inside and outside Israel seem to believe that, by resuming the fighting, Jerusalem has given up on rescuing the remaining hostages. But, writes Ron Ben-Yishai, this assertion misunderstands the goals of the present campaign. “Experience within the IDF and Israeli intelligence,” Ben-Yishai writes, “has shown that such pressure is the most effective way to push Hamas toward flexibility.” He outlines two other aims:

The second objective was to signal to Hamas that Israel is not only targeting its military wing—the terror army that was the focus of previous phases of the war up until the last cease-fire—but also its governance structure. This was demonstrated by the targeted elimination of five senior officials from Hamas’s political and civilian administration. . . . The strikes also served as a message to mediators, particularly Egypt, that Israel opposes Hamas remaining in any governing or military capacity in post-war Gaza.

The third objective was to create intense military pressure, coordinated with the U.S., on all remaining elements of the Shiite “axis of resistance,” including Yemen’s Houthis, Hamas, and Iran.