Analysis This could be recipe for perpetual war in Gaza

One of Israel's most celebrated images is David Rubinger's photograph of a trio of paratroopers at the newly captured Western Wall in 1967, an event that would mark the beginning of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.

- Peter Beaumont

You see it when arriving at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport. It has been used to illustrate the Israel Defense Forces' "values" page, and appears endlessly in the Hebrew media and on pro-Israel sites.

It is paradoxical that at the end of his life the central figure in the picture, Yitzhak Yifat, rejected at least some of the photograph's meaning. Speaking to the Guardian in 2017, with the benefit of five decades of hindsight, he reflected on that conquest.

"I can say that the results of the war were bad. We realised that we had conquered another people. A whole people. And now it seems we cannot now get to a true peace, a real peace," he said.

What was true then remains true today, as Israel's security cabinet has authorised the full occupation once again of Gaza, beginning with Gaza City.

While Benjamin Netanyahu has suggested it will be required until Hamas can be removed, the international community should consider the strong likelihood that Israel will maintain an open-ended control of all of Gaza - a recipe, say critics, for perpetual war.

And although the statement from Netanyahu's office describing the decision and its aims does not include the word "occupation" - with all the international legal obligations that would entail - no one should be in any doubt that this is what is envisaged.