From now on Israel will have to temper its attacks on Gaza

After six weeks of Israel's retaliatory strikes against Hamas in which thousands of civilians have been killed and injured and homes destroyed, the next phases of the war with Hamas will have to be moderated to account for the increasing opposition expressed around the world. No war can be fought in isolation, especially in the Middle East. Washington is getting worried about the civilian deaths which have been far higher than could ever be described as acceptable or unavoidable in a place as small as Gaza. No civilian deaths are acceptable but it is an unfortunate reality that in a war which involves thousands of airstrikes and artillery bombardments, the dreaded phrase collateral damage will happen. But the scale of the collateral damage in Gaza in the last six weeks has been devastating. Israel knows it cannot prosecute this war in the same way over the next few months or the whole world will turn against them. This mean that Israeli commanders will have to take a much more limited and refined approach to eliminating Hamas, still the main objective of the war from Israel's point of view. But restraint in war is far more difficult than all-out war. The next few weeks are going to be crucial if Israel has a hope of achieving what it wants to achieve without losing the support of its principal allies.