The world might be transfixed by scenes of destruction in Gaza, but this cuts little ice with Israelis, grimly focused on achieving their war aims.
Some, such as restoring Israel's military deterrence and badly damaging Hamas's armed capacity, have already been achieved, Israeli analysts and officials say.
Others, such as stopping Hamas rocket fire into Israel and preventing the Islamist movement from rearming via tunnels bored under Gaza's border with Egypt, are still incomplete.
Much will depend on the exact terms of a ceasefire agreement that Egypt is mediating and of arrangements expected to involve Egypt, the US and European countries, notably Germany, to intercept Hamas weapons shipments, the analysts say.
"We have rehabilitated our deterrence, at least vis a vis Hamas and organisations like it," said former Mossad chief Danny Yatom. "We have hit Hamas's military arm very severely."
Israel's military has pummelled the Gaza Strip for nearly three weeks, killing 1,076 Palestinians and wounding more than 5,000, according to the Hamas-run health ministry there.
Israel has lost 10 soldiers in the fighting and three civilians killed by rocket fire into southern Israeli towns.
Once the war is over, they want international guarantees to ensure their Islamist foes cannot replenish their arsenal.
"We don't know yet if the Egyptians will take it upon themselves to block the Philadelphi crossing, or whether Hamas is willing to make a commitment to the Egyptians that there will be a ceasefire for many years," Mr Yatom said.
Israeli analysts said it was too early to tell how the Gaza war would affect the Palestinian power struggle between Hamas and the Fatah faction led by President Mahmoud Abbas.
Egypt wants security forces loyal to Mr Abbas's Palestinian Authority to return to Israeli and Egyptian crossings into Gaza.
Hamas drove Mr Abbas's forces out of the coastal territory in June 2007, 18 months after winning a Palestinian election. Lifting an Israeli economic blockade that was tightened after the Hamas takeover is one of the Islamist group's main aims.
Some Israeli officials have predicted a drastic loss of support for Hamas, paving the way eventually for the Palestinian Authority to re-establish control over the Gaza Strip.
"Our information... is that Hamas has over-played its hand, that it has alienated large sections of the Palestinian street," said Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev.
"On the day after this crisis is over, when the dust settles, Hamas will be facing a very serious problem with the Palestinian people, specifically the population of Gaza."