Demilitarizing Gaza is being touted as part of a solution to the fighting that has, over the past month, torn apart the small area of blighted territory.

Israeli leaders are making this demand; US officials are endorsing the demand; and Europe's foreign ministers have stated that "all terrorist groups in Gaza must disarm." Sensible as the idea may sound, however, it's a red herring — and a potentially dangerous one.

Israel is clearly justified in insisting on measures to protect its citizens from attack by rockets and tunnels from the Gaza Strip, but insisting that the territory be demilitarized now — in the absence of a wider political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — will not achieve the security Israelis have a right to expect. As Israeli Institute for National Security Studies fellow Benedetta Berti puts it: “At best, seeking disarmament on the battlefield is an unfeasible political proposition. At worst, it is a path toward further escalation.”

This is not to argue that arms should be provided to Hamas or other groups in Gaza or be allowed to flow freely. International and Palestinian Authority-supervised mechanisms for preventing unauthorized weapons from entering the territory were available before Israel’s devastating Operation Protective Edge, and they remain available. Those mechanisms should be utilized.