IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz said Wednesday that the IDF had assured Israel of “peace from the Gaza Strip for many years to come.” He was talking to the division and brigade commanders who had fought in the month-long Operation Defensive Edge. “Hamas had been gravely impaired,” he said. “The Gaza Strip has suffered calamitous consequences. But Hamas is to blame for this tragedy waging violence out of populated areas.”