Anyone following media reports about the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip did not need the assessment offered by Military Intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Herzl Halevy that the powder keg that is Gaza will blow up in Israel’s face. A recent survey commissioned by the Israeli human rights organization Gisha shows that 67% of Israelis believe the nearly decadelong Israeli blockade of Gaza has undermined Israeli security, and 70% believe that an improvement in the living conditions of Gaza residents would reduce the level of anti-Israel hostility and violence.

Halevy based his March 1 closed-door briefing to members of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, among other things, on a 2015 United Nations report warning that if current trends persist in the Gaza Strip, by 2020 Gaza will not be fit for human habitation. The UN Conference on Trade and Development that compiled the report noted the destructive effects on the enclave of its three wars with Israel since 2009. The last and longest, Israel’s Operation Protective Edge in summer 2014, led to the displacement of half a million Gaza Palestinians from their homes and pushed the majority deeper into poverty. With unemployment at 44%, 72% of Gaza’s households suffer from food insecurity.

The September 2015 report made headlines worldwide. But no seismic activity was recorded in the offices of Israel’s prime minister and his government ministers. So what if the children of Gaza are drinking filthy water? Why should we be bothered that unemployed university graduates lap up the anti-Israel incitement spewed out by preachers in the mosques? Hamas is unable to stop the rockets fired from Gaza into Israel by various factions? Never mind. On Jan. 24, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman promised that in the next confrontation with Gaza, “We won’t stop until the other side screams 'gevalt' [Yiddish for 'good grief'] and raises a white flag.” As of now, no reports have emerged of Yiddish courses being offered by the education officers of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Nor do we know of any attempt by Israel to examine alternatives to its policy of blockading Gaza and bombing it from the air in retaliation for rocket firings.

A pale ray of sunlight was dispatched to Gaza residents and citizens of Israel from far-away Sydney. At a Feb. 26 meeting with Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, Netanyahu said he would be willing to examine the deployment of foreign forces to control the Gaza Strip de facto and deal with terrorism issues. That would mean lifting the siege and opening the region to the entry and exit of people and goods, as well as accelerating the human and physical rehabilitation of Gaza. This is not the first time such an option has been raised. In June 2007, after Hamas took control of Gaza, then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said, "We must give serious consideration to introducing a multinational force, similar to the [United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon]” into the area along the border between Gaza, Israel and Egypt."