Israel on the horns of a dilemma

The Israeli government has called up tens of thousands of reserves and stationed military hardware close to the border with Gaza in preparation for a ground assault.

There has been a concerted international effort to broker a ceasefire and Israel has suspended any decision on the invasion of Gaza to allow this process to take its course.

Yet this places Israel in an extremely difficult position.

The militant groups in Gaza have boasted that Israeli airstrikes have had little impact on their stockpiles of rockets and other weapons.

In recent days longer range rockets have been fired, reaching Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, with these rockets reportedly supplied by Iran.

There is conjecture that Hamas has developed the capacity to manufacture longer-range rockets, with equipment also reportedly provided by Iran.

Significant amounts of arms are also believed to have flowed into Gaza after the collapse of the Gaddafi regime in Libya.

Israel cannot eliminate these weapons stockpiles from the air and a ground operation would be the only way to locate and destroy the terrorist infrastructure.

However Gaza is among the most densely populated places on earth and any invasion would inevitably result in more casualties among the Palestinian people, the militant forces and the Israeli forces.

Israel is more than aware that it is not only engaged in a military conflict but also in a battle for global opinion.

Any ground invasion would be leveraged by the Palestinian militants through the release of film footage of any injury or death of non-combatants, particularly women and children.

However, if Israeli forces do not enter Gaza, this would be used by the militants as evidence that Israel feared an invasion, thus claiming a victory of sorts over Israel.