The Learned and Unlearned Lessons of the First Gaza War

From the summer of 2006 onward, Israel has fought numerous battles against Hamas in Gaza. The first major operation was known to the IDF as Operation Cast Lead, which began when Hamas launched 70 rockets at Israel and lasted from December 27, 2008 to January 18, 2009. This short war in many ways set the pattern for subsequent rounds of fighting, and culminated with a ground offensive into Gaza City similar to the one that the IDF has recently begun. Hamas employed the lessons it learned from these conflicts in planning the October 7 attacks and the battles that followed. Whether Israel learned as much is another question.