Israel, 20 October 2023 (GNP): Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant outlined Israel’s goals for its assault against Hamas in the Gaza Strip on Friday, predicting the creation of a new “security reality” in the region.
At a Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee hearing in Tel Aviv, Gallant stated that one of the war’s goals is to dismantle Hamas’s political and military infrastructure.
Furthermore, establishing a new “security regime” in the Gaza Strip is a means to eliminate Israel’s accountability for Gaza.
There will be three primary phases to the fight, Gallant informed the committee.
“We are in the first phase, in which a military campaign is taking place with [airstrikes] and later with a [ground] maneuver to destroy operatives and damaging infrastructure to defeat and destroy Hamas,” Gallant said.
According to him, the soldiers would battle on, albeit more slowly, in the second phase as they attempt to “eliminate pockets of resistance.”
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“The third phase would involve the establishment of a new security structure in the Gaza Strip, the disengagement of Israel from day-to-day operations there, and the development of a new security environment for Israeli citizens living there and those residing in the vicinity of Gaza”, he stated.
An Israeli official told media earlier this week that Benny Gantz, the leader of the National Unity party, and fellow party member Gadi Eisenkot, who joined the coalition last week to form an emergency wartime cabinet, have demanded the creation of a Gaza exit strategy and have tasked a committee with creating one.
Israeli and US sources have stated that US President Joe Biden’s administration has also been quietly pressuring Israel to elaborate on its withdrawal plan.
Referencing the US’s experiences in Afghanistan during its 2001 invasion to overthrow the Taliban in the wake of the September 11 attacks, Biden warned Israel on Wednesday against becoming permanently involved in Gaza.
In Tel Aviv, Biden declared, “Justice must be served. But I must warn you: even if you are furious, resist the want to let anger control you. In the United States, we were furious after 9/11. We committed blunders even though we pursued and received justice”.
Biden cautioned that wartime leadership “requires clarity about the objectives and an honest assessment about whether the path you’re on will achieve those objectives,” indicating his worry about the prospect that civilian casualties may derail Israel’s battle against Hamas.
