A very large portion of the fighting force that the IDF has deployed is made up of reservists, who pursue a host of different careers in their civilian lives. For one such reservist, Lieutenant-Colonel Yair Amitsur, his nonmilitary training proved useful when he and a fellow reserve officer came across a large bowl-shaped item in the staging ground just outside Gaza, which he recognized as an ancient mortar. Judy Siegel-Itzkovich reports:

Amitsur, the commander of the civilian frontline in Division 143, and Major Eliashiv Buhbut discovered the tool made of basalt, which weighs more than ten kilograms. . . . Amitsur, who ordinarily is an IAA archaeologist, immediately recognized that it was an ancient grinding tool.

“Black-colored basalt is familiar from the north of the country as in Tiberias or Safed, or from other remote areas,” Amitsur explained. “It was clear to me that the tool we found was brought here from afar and was probably used in the past in the home of one of the residents of the area to grind grain or other products, which is done with a heavy pestle. We were excited to . . . receive a greeting from the past and engage in some good news. The tool reminds us that throughout the generations, the Western Negev served as a significant settlement area where a variety of cultures settled. There were also wars in the past, but in the end, settlement always returned, and the area again flourished,” he added.

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.