Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | I’ve been concerned from the start that Israel launched its invasion of the Gaza Strip to eradicate Hamas with no plan for what to do with the territory and its people in the wake of any victory. Having just spent a week in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates taking the pulse of this important corner of the Arab world, I am now even more worried.

Let me summarise my concerns this way: because Hamas built a vast tunnel network under Gaza, Israeli forces, in their quest to eliminate that vicious terrorist organisation, are having to destroy huge numbers of structures. It’s the only way they can kill a lot of Hamas fighters and demilitarise Gaza without losing a lot of their own soldiers in the short window that Israel feels it has in the face of pressure from the US and other allies to wind down the invasion.