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The Wider Goal Needs to Be the Conquest of Gaza

(Makor Rishon-Hebrew-21March2025) Oded Ailam interviewed by Yishai Elmakies - Oded Ailam, former head of the Counterterrorism Division in the Mossad and currently a researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, explains the thinking behind the renewed Israeli offensive in Gaza. "Hamas has an interest in drawing out the negotiations, raising various new issues all the time....In Hamas, they understood that they needed time...to enlist and train new fighters, to replenish their weapons supply, and to strengthen their control over the population. But enlisting 5,000 youths age 16-18 and giving them 300 shekels each doesn't make them an effective fighting force." "Hamas is particularly focused on maintaining control of the Gazan population and is telling them to forget any ideas that Hamas is leaving, disarming, and becoming irrelevant. Their message is 'We are here.' Hamas has a unit called 'Saham,' whose role is to deal with collaborators....This unit uses threats to instill fear in Gazans who question the ethos of Hamas. They deal with Gazans with a heavy hand, abuse them and kill them." Unlike relations with the Biden Administration, Ailam says, Israel is acting in coordination with the Americans. "Israel agreed to the Witkoff outline and Hamas rejected it. Hamas will not return all the hostages....Hamas clearly understands the importance of the hostage card for Israel, so they will not release all of them. It is an illusion to say, 'let's withdraw totally from Gaza, accept all of Hamas's demands, and then after we get back the hostages we can go back in.' It won't happen because Hamas will not release all the hostages." "Hamas finds itself now at its lowest point. All of its supporters in the region lied to them or ceased to exist. Hizbullah will certainly not return to the fight, nor will Iran. The Houthis may shoot a missile every so often to wake us up at night, but not more than that. And so they are left quite alone. Hamas is now fighting for its survival." "Hamas understands that it will not rule, but wants the Hizbullah model where it doesn't rule but it dictates everything. The Egyptian plan would allow this....As long as Hamas is not disarmed it will dictate everything that happens in Gaza. I don't see any international force that is able to come and disarm Hamas. Certainly not the Egyptians." "Israel has no other real option to achieve the goals of the war - the return of the hostages and the collapse of Hamas - without the conquest of Gaza down to the last centimeter. We need to perform a deep cleansing that includes the destruction of its military infrastructure, preventing rearmament, and a complete economic blockade of Hamas." "We will need to set up a military government to back up the Israeli moves, and after a year or two, try to create an alternative internal government, while enabling Israel to do whatever it needs to do in Gaza for its security, and maintain a security perimeter to assure that Oct. 7 will not reoccur. I don't see any other way."
2025-03-23 00:00:00
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