A former commander in the Israeli army’s planning department called for the adoption of a new strategy for the army, after 8 months of war on Gaza and the expected end of the fighting in Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip.
Lieutenant Colonel Amit Yegor, former deputy head of the Palestinian arena in the Israeli Army’s Planning Department, stressed in an article in Maariv newspaper yesterday, Monday, that the next stage requires increased focus on Iran and the dismantling of what he described as the Islamic Resistance Government (Hamas) in Gaza.
He said, “The near end of the efforts in Rafah requires a new strategy. From now on, the focus must be on Iran, which is exploiting the campaign in Gaza well to meet its own needs, and on dismantling the Hamas civilian government in Gaza.”
Achievements and costs
Yegor spoke about what he saw as achievements achieved by the Israeli army, and mentioned the most important of them being “the dismantling of Hamas’ ability to fight as a single military and organizational system, and the manufacture of weapons and ammunition in the Gaza Strip,” in addition to the severe damage to what he called “lower Gaza,” in which Hamas militants are still present. Above and below the ground.
He also talked about “an achievement at the strategic level, which is seizing the Philadelphia axis and cutting the oxygen line between Gaza and Egypt,” noting the great price that Israel paid for this, including the dismantling of the Israeli army’s stockpiles of weapons and ammunition, the loss of lives, and the continuation of the Hamas civilian regime of rule, International legitimacy declines, and Israel’s relationship with the United States weakens.
As for the achievements against Hezbollah, which he described as the main branch of Iran, he said that they were “the destruction of the military infrastructure and the killing of its senior members,” but in return he pointed to the heavy price that Israel paid in terms of its civilians.
He explained that Iran took advantage of the international preoccupation with the war, and used it as a tool to divert attention from it. In recent months, it has greatly increased its efforts to enrich uranium, becoming a source of uranium and accelerating the pace towards nuclear weapons.
Israeli Marshall Plan for Gaza
The former senior officer in Naval Intelligence believes that in order to devote itself to Iran, the Israeli army must move from the war stage to a long-term campaign, which requires “studying the strategic achievements that have not yet been achieved in the Gaza Strip, which will turn Hamas into a vanishing party, and moving to… A different style of war, towards limited operations, accompanied by a general statement about the end of the war.”
Therefore, in the civil sphere, he calls for what he called an “Israeli Marshall Plan” for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip with international and Arab funding, because he believes that “the civil system in Gaza is the last center of gravity of Hamas, and it must be dealt with as quickly as possible to achieve the major achievement that can be achieved after it.” End the fighting.”
He added, “In this sense, there is no more time to waste, because it costs us human lives, and if there is no other alternative, the army must take this task upon itself temporarily, and in a completely civilian formation,” because there is no intention to continue the occupation and military rule, According to his claim.
To make this plan successful, Yegur calls for considering bringing in paid international civilian companies, or what can be described as civilian mercenaries, to distribute aid to the residents of the Strip. If not, it will be distributed by the Israeli army, and he believes that “this step would create contact with the residents of Gaza for the first time, and push Hamas into a gradual process that will sever its connection with the population.”
Rather, the former senior Israeli officer called for “managing the routine of daily life through municipalities, bringing in international and Arab civilian professionals for wages, or having professionals from Israel help Gazan professionals manage daily life.”
He also called for an Israeli initiative to restore what he called the routine of life in the Gaza Strip, with funding from Arab and international organizations, but at the same time he admitted that such a step would require keeping the Strip under the occupation’s security control.
The former commander of the occupation army indicated that it is necessary to begin immediately the transition from the tactical level to the strategic level, and to focus on Iran and its feverish move towards nuclear weapons, and on the Hamas civilian regime in Gaza in order to dismantle it once and for all, so that it no longer has any connection to the procedures of “the next day.” In the Gaza Strip.
