The first is that Israel’s deterrence capabilities are limited. Israel has always sought to maintain its military-technological strength, and relies on the superiority of its military vis-à-vis the Palestinians and the Arab world as a whole. Because of its victories in previous conflicts, Israel has developed a sense of invincibility, particularly since it has one of the best-trained armies in the world.

The latest war in Gaza has put an end to the myth of Israeli invincibility. A technologically-superior military force was not able to achieve victory over a resistance movement whose fighters number in the few thousands, and whose equipment barely registers when compared to Israel’s advanced arsenal.

Israel claims that, despite the truly enormous scale of its destruction in Gaza, it was selective in its bombing due to the area’s population density. But that’s the point: Israel’s future wars with Palestinians are going to be in very densely populated areas. Since Palestinians have discovered that Israel is not able to bear the costs of a ground campaign in a densely populated area, they have now learned the limits of Israeli capabilities, and will exploit them in the future.

Israel was unable to achieve the goals that it announced before the war. It was unable to disarm the various resistance movements and turn Gaza into a demilitarized zone, nor was it able to put an end to the tunnel system, or impose calm and guarantee the security of its own citizens. All that its vaunted military machine was able to achieve was “calm for calm.” Meanwhile, the Palestinians were able to achieve a balance of deterrence despite the chasm that separates their military strength from Israel’s.

The second lesson is that Israel’s ongoing siege of Gaza can’t continue. It is neither possible nor acceptable that 1.8 million Palestinians continue to live in the world’s biggest open-air prison, and that they be required to surrender and acquiesce to the conditions of their detention. It is unacceptable that Palestinians living there are banned from travelling out of Gaza. How much longer will Israel continue to rule the lives of Palestinians and demand their compliance, branding all those who resist the state of siege and occupation terrorists?