The Gaza war quite a strange one. It exposed Israelis to phenomena unlike anything they had known in the past. Demonstrations of solidarity within the public at large emerged side by side with deep disagreements among the decision makers. Much like all other wars, it started with a complete accord, but ended up with doubts concerning its objectives. When ended, almost no one was able to respond as to what was its goal to begin with. The war with Hamas provoked the evacuation of most of Israel's southern communities. While the state encouraged the residents to stay put, the later reached the conclusion that they cannot rely on their country. They picked up their children and a few suitcases and abandoned their homes, until calm is restored. Here are several other central phenomena exposed by the 2014 war:

Length of Gaza war

Very few military campaigns in Israel have been anywhere near as long as the Gaza war of 2014. The Israelis, used to wars lasting a few days or a few weeks at the most, had a hard time coping with Operation Protective Edge. Almost every day an attempt was made to shorten this war through some cease-fire or other. Not even a week had passed before the public started to wonder whether the time hadn’t come to stop it altogether. Yes, there were wars that lasted longer, but the war in the Gaza Strip was called an “operation” — that is, an abridged and partial version of full-fledged warfare. By its second day, on July 9, experts already began appearing in TV studios to announce that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had won the war, and that it was time to withdraw the troops.

The length of this war impacted almost every family in Israel, not least because almost every family sent a soldier to the front. No other war has stirred up as much anxiety as the limited operation in Gaza. Israelis started to see the Gaza Strip as a game of “Palestinian roulette,” which could end with a soldier dead in the most incidental and unexpected way. That is why almost all Israelis hoped that this war would end quickly. Being familiar with the Israeli impatience in regard to lengthy wars, the prime minister and the top military brass, headed by the chief of staff, tried to end the campaign as quickly as possible. On the other hand, the Palestinians were also well aware of how impatient Israelis are, so they did everything they could to draw it out, hoping to exhaust Israelis in the process. After all, there is nothing like a war of attrition to exhaust Israeli moral. “Against their attrition, they will be struck very hard,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised in a news conferences on Aug. 24, reflecting the mood among Israelis.