“At the end of the day, we will have to penetrate inside Gaza City, and I think that everyone who stays there will be considered a militant. Otherwise, he would have gone. He knows the threats, he knows that we are coming in with large forces,” Knafo said."
Following the Israeli Security Cabinet’s decision to prepare for a final, large-scale military takeover of Gaza City, the war against Hamas is entering its most decisive phase. The impending operation, which will reportedly involve an estimated 80,000 soldiers, is aimed at dismantling the last major stronghold of the terror organization, which continues to hold 20 living Israeli hostages and the bodies of 30 additional hostages.
Former senior Israeli defense officials have stated in recent days that this high-stakes offensive is a necessary and long-overdue step to achieve the war’s ultimate objectives. They argued that the success of the mission will hinge not just on military force, but on Israel’s ability to project determination and to strategically separate the civilian population from Hamas’s control, thereby forcing the terror group’s collapse as a regime and power broker in Gaza.
Shalom Arbel, a former senior member of the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) who served extensively in Gaza, told JNS that Hamas, guided by a long-term jihadist Islamist ideology bent on Israel’s destruction at all costs, operates like a ruthless real estate dealer, constantly making a cost-benefit analysis.
" 'Hamas operates on the basis of its satanic agenda, which is the doctrine of the Muslim Brotherhood,” said Arbel. This ideology views the Land of Israel as Islamic territory that “must be returned to Islam. Now that doesn’t mean that this must be within five years or twenty years. This is a long journey from their view, until ‘redemption.’ It’s an eternal journey.”
“ 'Hamas, in my acquaintance with it, conducts a daily situation assessment and calculation of its steps, and looks for the steps that will most bring it closer to this goal,” Arbel said. “Its goal is to bleed Israel, exhaust its power socially and nationally and militarily,t o cause it economic damage.”
"However, if Hamas “sees that Israel is determined—even if it’s not fully realized, but that Israel is getting close [to seizing all of Gaza]—it will carry out what is called loss minimization and will raise a flag and say, ‘Stop, let’s negotiate.’ It will not want to lose everything,” Arbel assessed." . . . More...
No comments:
Post a Comment