By Alistair Bunkall, Middle East correspondent In the hours and days after the 7 October attacks on Israel, the sense coming from the Israeli military and government was of an imminent ground invasion to avenge the massacre of their people.Whether the decision-makers have taken a collective pause for breath, or whether international pressure has forced them to slow down, the much-promised ground invasion hasn't yet happened.
Each time they go into the Gaza Strip, they destroy infrastructure, map out routes, assess the environment and gather vital intelligence.Bit-by-bit, the IDF is pushing into Gaza – don't be surprised if there is no 'big moment' of invasion rather a gradual and deliberate rise in tempo of operations.The slower build up to a larger ground invasion will not just have taken the wider watching world by surprise, but Hamas too.