More Air Strikes, Ground Offensive Inside Palestine or Negotiation? Decoding Israel's Options | Exclusive

Fighting continued in southern Israel early Monday after the government declared war and intensified its bombardment of the Gaza Strip in retaliation for a major surprise attack by Hamas.

Special forces soldiers were brought in to try to retake four Israeli sites held by Hamas following its unprecedented weekend incursion, which officials said involved as many as 1,000 fighters. The militants blew through a fortified border fence and gunned down civilians and soldiers in Israeli communities along the Gaza frontier during a Jewish holiday.

The rampage included an assault on a crowded music festival where authorities had removed about 260 bodies by Sunday.

Israel struck back with airstrikes, including one that flattened a 14-story tower that held Hamas offices. At least 700 people were reported killed in Israel and more than 400 in Gaza. Thousands were wounded and some 123,000 displaced people in Gaza were in shelters, the UN said.

Amid the carnage, an assessment by India’s Intelligence sources listed several options — both good and bad — before Israel.

To begin with, Israel can increase air strikes where they will get nothing but will be more vulnerable to future attacks from all sides.

Another option is to begin a ground offensive inside Palestine but that will trigger the problem of civilian killings and put a question mark on the success of the mission. There is also no guarantee of where the ground offensive will go and once it is opened, Hezbollah will definitely enter the ring.

Alternatively, as a compromise formula, they can exchange prisoners for their own citizens. The flip side is that it will release thousands of Hamas terrorists who may turn around and engineer more attacks in the future.

Another option is to negotiate for something else where the Arab world is also comfortable and gives space to Israel. In one of the impossible-looking scenarios, they may be able to recover their own captives deep inside Gaza.

In the best-possible scenario, where they can have gain some positive results, Israel should ignore the threat and attack Hamas without assessment, making it an international threat. By doing this, they would polarise the world’s sympathy and create an atmosphere against Islamic terror threat. They will be able to identify Hamas funders and push pressure on the tilted world order to sanction Hamas.