Ex-Top Israeli Official: Future of Gaza After Hamas 'Doesn't Concern Us'
18:59 GMT 19.10.2023 (Updated: 09:23 GMT 05.12.2023)
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Israel is preparing to launch a ground assault on the Gaza Strip to destroy the Islamist militant group Hamas, which was elected to Gaza's government in 2006. A former top Israeli official said Israel's concern in Gaza is purely with the elimination of a "terrorist group," and they do not care how Palestinians govern the territory afterward.
More than a week after Hamas forces stormed through gaps in the Gaza border fence and attacked Israeli settlements near the border, killing over 1,300 people, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) are continuing to amass troops ahead of a ground assault on the Gaza Strip. Jerusalem has said the operation will aim to destroy Hamas networks in northern Gaza, and have warned 1.1 million Palestinians living in the area to evacuate.
Meanwhile, the Gaza Strip remains under “complete siege,” as Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant put it, with electricity, fuel, and food links severed from the outside world, and the IDF air bombardment has killed at least 3,800 people, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
The US has moved to resupply the IDF and positioned two aircraft carriers in the region, warning other powers not to attack Israel during such a critical hour.
Yaakov Kedmi, a military expert and former head of the Israeli Jewish diaspora liaison service Nativ, told Sputnik that Israel’s aim in the operation is to increase its security in the wake of the attack, not to seize control over more Palestinian land.
19 October 2023, 18:05 GMT
He said the IDF’s main goal in the coming ground operation in the Gaza Strip is “the complete liquidation of Hamas, all its military and political structures, so that there is no more Hamas in Gaza. This is an operational task which stands in front of the Israeli army.”
Once Hamas is destroyed, Kedmi said there were several possible futures for the Gaza Strip.
“Israel is not going to stay in Gaza and rule it and so on. There are several options. The most acceptable option is for Israeli troops to leave and the Palestinian Authority to become the legitimate political authority in Gaza, to return to power with its security, police and everything else. That is, return to the state that was in its time, when the Palestinian Authority governed both Gaza and the West Bank, as it did before Hamas seized power in Gaza.”
“Other options are less realistic and less effective, such as for some Arab forces to enter there and maintain some kind of order. Maybe other international forces, but this is all unreliable and ineffective, because the only power that can exist there and that can be sustainable is the power of the Palestinians themselves,” he said.
“We're not going to stay anyway. Once Hamas is eliminated, then there will be negotiations with Arab countries and with the Palestinian Authority. These are your people, this is your territory. We have no complaints. Take it. The only thing is that no more terrorist organizations can arise there, and that there is no threat to Israel from there. That's all.”
19 October 2023, 12:38 GMT
“We left there completely,” he noted. “The first time was when the Oslo Accords began, and then from a small remaining area in 2006. There will be a Gaza without Hamas and then the political forces that will govern there will determine what will happen to Gaza. Will it be the Palestinian Authority, will it be some kind of inter-Arab forces? Let them decide, it doesn't concern us.”
Despite Hamas being a social movement with broad popular support in Gaza and even some support in the West Bank, Kedmi said this did not make Hamas’ destruction any less impossible than for other terrorist groups.
“Is ISIS* not a social movement, al-Qaeda** not a social movement?” he asked. “Does this deprive them of their terrorist essence? No, We are not interested in the social movement aspect, social issues will be resolved by the Palestinian Authority, and the terrorist component will be resolved in our prisons.”
Turning to Israeli society, Kedmi noted that despite sharp political divisions, Israelis were united in the belief that “Hamas must be eliminated.”
“There are different opinions in Israel regarding the future of Gaza, but they do not play any significance, because the real way out of the situation is when the Arab forces themselves, inter-Arab, control the Gaza Strip. The most stable and most natural ones that can do this are the authorities of the Palestinian Authority, as it was for 12 years after the Oslo agreements,” he said.
18 October 2023, 17:19 GMT
Kedmi rejected the suggestion that a ground operation in Gaza could potentially be the beginning of a wider war in the Middle East.
“With whom? Who will fight against us?” he asked. “Well, there are two terrorist organizations, one Hamas, one Hezbollah. But these are not serious opponents. Who else will fight against us? We have no claims or aspirations for any country around us. Those who are further away shout louder, but those who are closer sit quietly. They have already fought with us, and this has discouraged them forever.”
*Daesh (also known as ISIS/ISIL/IS) is a terrorist organization outlawed in Russia and many other states.
**Al-Qaeda and al-Nusra Front (Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham) are terrorist organizations banned in Russia and many other countries.
