Rewind and Reconnoiter: Lessons from Israel’s Wars in Gaza with Raphael Cohen

In 2017, Raphael Cohen wrote “Five Lessons from Israel’s Wars in Gaza” for War on the Rocks, in which he looked at how the Israel Defense Forces’ “operations in Gaza provide an example of the challenges that advanced militaries face when confronting determined, adaptive, hybrid adversaries in dense urban terrain,” especially after Operation Protective Edge, in 2014. In light of the current war in Gaza, we asked him to look back on his piece and reflect on those five lessons. Read more below. Image: IDF In your piece from 2017, you wrote that “as much as Israel may disdain Hamas, Israel cannot simply