soldier in narrow tunnel, holding hold and flashlight
An Israeli army officer walks through a tunnel said to be used by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip.
  • A veteran of the Israel Defense Forces says serving in the 2014 Gaza war made him a peace activist.
  • Benzion Sanders, writing in The New York Times, said he was shocked at the civilian death toll.
  • "Then, as now, Israelis were told that we were going in to deal a decisive blow to Hamas," he wrote

The last time Israel sent ground troops into the Gaza Strip, back in 2014, it was with the stated aim of preventing rockets from being fired at Israeli cities and knocking out the Palestinian territory's vast network of tunnels.