Comment by hedora

This conflict (and the press/social media sentiment) seems to be going exactly as planned by both sides of the conflict.

According to Israeli intelligence, Hamas’s primary goal was to cause as much death and destruction in Gaza as possible. The Israeli civilians were just collateral damage.

They needed Israel to over-react and commit so many war crimes that it would force other countries into the conflict, and also get a new generation of Palestinians to sign up for the cause.

Not only did they achieve all their goals, but they did it in one day! They had budgeted for three days of slaughtering Israeli citizens, since they thought it would be harder to force a response. Since they called it off early, they presumably have more resources in reserve than expected.

As it usually goes with these conflicts, Hamas and the Israeli hardliners won on day one, and literally everyone else lost:

The strong anti-Israeli sentiment online will just justify more military investment in Israel, and might even help them use fear to win an election or two.

At the same time, Hamas recruiters can again use rational arguments to get people to sign up.

The frontline of the Israeli military (including many draftees) get screwed, as do all the people that live anywhere near the conflicts.