The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have every intention of staging in the Gaza Strip something similar to the US destruction of the Japanese city of Hiroshima, only without nuclear weapons, American journalist Seymour Hersh wrote in an article on Substack.
“Gaza City is in the process of being turned into Hiroshima with no nuclear weapons used,” Hersh cited sources as telling him.
Furthermore, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has every intention “to wipe out Hamas,” with little concern for hundreds of thousands of citizens of Gaza that were told to evacuate and move south of the enclave on October 12, underscored Sy Hersh, referencing unnamed intelligence analysts in Washington.
Netanyahu formed an emergency unity government a few days ago with ex-military Chief of Staff Benny Gantz to bring his National Unity party into the governing coalition and join the war cabinet including Defense Minster Yoav Gallant. Israel has vowed to "destroy" the Hamas movement ruling in the Gaza Strip after its attacks on Southern Israel. After calling up a reported 350,000 army reservists — totalling around a tenth of the country's workforce — since October 7, Israel appeared to be holding back on an invasion.
While the Rafah crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt remains closed, at some point, “American-made bombs in the Israeli arsenal, including those known as “bunker busters,” may be targeted on the underground tunnel systems where Hamas manufactured the weapons and conducted planning for the horrific attacks in southern Israel on October 7,” wrote Hersh.
“Under the Israeli plans, there would be no need for a massive ground invasion,” insiders had informed Hersh, while Israeli troops, “would be needed for hunting down those Hamas members underground who choose to surrender.” However, the orders to the Israeli military, according to a cited official, would be “shoot on sight,” with surrender not an option.
“The official told me that the Hamas soldiers who would emerge from the tunnels desperate for food were seen by the Israelis as starving rats who would be met with poisoned food. The fate of the nearly two hundred hostages, most of them Israeli but known also to include a few Americans, was left unsaid,” wrote Sy Hersh.
Accordingly, Netanyahu’s plan, as per the official referenced by Hersh, is to ensure that the Israeli Army destroys the Hamas tunnel system, along with every member of the militant group they can hunt down. After that, the remnants of Gaza City would be purportedly barricaded at the southernmost end. Hamas “stragglers” would be tracked down as Israeli soldiers scored every block in the destroyed city.
Sy Hersh also weighed in on the visit paid by US President Joe Biden to Israel on Wednesday. After earlier sending to the eastern Mediterranean near Israel two US Navy carrier strike groups led by the USS Gerald Ford and the USS Dwight D Eisenhower, Biden pledged support to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's operation in the Gaza Strip. Recalling Biden’s Sunday interview for US media, where he conceded that while Hamas “must be eliminated entirely,” while adding that there “needs to be a path to a Palestinian state,” Hersh suggested that the latter was “not on Israel’s agenda.”
His visit had come a day after an attack on the al-Ahli Arab Hospital in northern Gaza, where locals were sheltering from Israeli airstrikes on the enclave.
The entire international community was shocked by the catastrophe, with citizens across the globe rallying in support of Palestine and urging for a ceasefire. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stressed that the attack on the hospital is an “act of dehumanization.” Russian President Vladimir Putin described the hospital’s destruction as a tragedy and a humanitarian catastrophe. Speaking at the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, he voiced hope that the horrific event will be a “signal” that the bloody conflict in Gaza needs to end as soon as possible.
Regarding the US show of force in the region amid the escalation of hostilities, Sy Hersh cited an official as saying:
“All the American services are jumping on it… but Israel is saying, ‘Go back. We don’t want your stuff’… There are no better pilots today than those in the Israeli Air Forces. Bibi’s got it under control and no Israeli is going to worry about the fate of the citizens of Gaza.”
The unnamed official also purportedly speculated whether Joe Biden’s fleeting visit to Israel might have been an attempt to “keep the Ukraine war off the front pages,” amid Kiev's botched counteroffensive