Former Israeli Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi revealed failed Israeli attempts to assassinate the head of the Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinwar, and the commander-in-chief of the Al-Qassam Brigades, Muhammad Al-Deif, and said that stopping the war on the Gaza Strip is the only way to return the Israeli detainees there.
This came in a previous speech made by Kohavi before a crowd of Jews in the United States, which was broadcast by the private Israeli Channel 12 on Wednesday evening.
Kochavi left his position about 9 months before the Al-Aqsa flood attack launched by the Al-Qassam Brigades – the military wing of the Hamas movement – on the settlements surrounding the Gaza Strip on October 7, but many Israelis see him as one of those responsible for the security failure that led to those events, according to The channel itself.
Kochavi said: “I do not think there is a way to return the kidnapped people without stopping the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip.”
With the mediation of Qatar, Egypt, and the United States, the Palestinian factions in Gaza and Israel have been conducting faltering indirect negotiations for months, to reach an agreement to exchange prisoners and stop the war on Gaza that broke out on October 7, 2023.
He added, “People can ask: Why did you not do anything about Gaza? We prepared the army to confront Iran. I must admit that we did not consider the Gaza Strip and Hamas an existential threat, and the strategy on the ground was to focus on Iran and the northern arena.”
We tried to assassinate Al-Deif and Al-Sanwar
He explained that in 2021 we saw a change in Hamas, and we indicated that something new was happening.
Kochavi pointed out that this is the reason behind “our attempt to assassinate the head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Al-Sinwar, and the commander-in-chief of the Al-Qassam Brigades, Muhammad Al-Deif, but the matter is difficult in densely populated areas,” as he described it.
He continued: “We worked for several months to carry out the liquidations of Al-Dhaif and Al-Sanwar, but we were unable to do so.”
Regarding the situation on the northern front, Kochavi said, “The only way to end the battle with Hezbollah is to stop the war in Gaza.” He pointed out that it is difficult to believe that through diplomatic channels we will achieve the desired situation in the north, and the other option is a military operation.
Since the eighth of last October, Hezbollah and Lebanese and Palestinian factions, on the one hand, and the Israeli army, on the other, have exchanged daily bombardments, resulting in deaths and injuries between both parties, most of them in Lebanon.
Hezbollah says it is launching attacks against the Israeli army “in solidarity with the Gaza Strip,” which has been exposed to a devastating Israeli war with American support since October 7.
Israel continues its devastating war against the Gaza Strip despite the issuance of an immediate ceasefire resolution by the Security Council, and despite its appearance before the International Court of Justice on charges of committing “genocide.”
