Prominent Israeli writer Gideon Levy ridiculed reports that the occupying state is planning to announce, in the coming days, that it has eliminated the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), and that it has won the war it is waging against Gaza.
Levy said that the announcement of the elimination of Hamas’ “army” is a plan aimed at allowing the withdrawal of most Israeli forces from Gaza and their transfer to the northern border to launch another “victorious and glorious” campaign in Lebanon, like the one that took place in the besieged Palestinian Strip.
He added in an article in the left-wing Israeli newspaper Haaretz that this victory will be more terrible than the previous one, and that the important thing is getting out of Gaza.
More drowning
According to Levy, every day that passes for Israel will only lead to more drowning in the Gaza quagmire. He said, “Suppose you crushed all the Hamas brigades in Rafah, which were a hair away from achieving complete victory, then you must hide everything that happened to Israel from inside and outside and what prevents the declaration of victory, because what is most important is leaving Gaza.”
He continued, adding, “It is clear that Israel did not and will not achieve any victory in Gaza, and it had to pretend to come down from the blood-stained tree that it climbed, a tree that it did not have to climb in the first place,” referring to the besieged Palestinian Strip.
He added sarcastically that it would be better for Israel to feign victory, adding that despite receiving a military strike, Hamas triumphed diplomatically, socially, morally, and economically.
Involvement is useless
The writer said that Israel’s situation at the end of the war was much worse than it was at the beginning, describing the war as “unnecessary” and that there was no justification for it, explaining that wars are measured by their results and that the results of the Gaza war were known in advance as they were manifested in useless involvement, He shed Palestinian blood as if it were water, and turned Israel into a pariah state, “all for nothing.”
He criticized the constant Israeli narrative that claims that Israel had no choice, neither after the Al-Aqsa flood attack on October 7, nor now.
He stressed that there are 3 options in Gaza: either Hamas continues to rule the Gaza Strip, even if it is a weak option and requires careful monitoring, or Gaza becomes like Somalia. The third option is for the Gaza Strip to be subject to permanent Israeli occupation, and there is no fourth option – as Levy claims – which tends to the first option, which he describes as the lesser of evils.
The article concluded by saying that if this is the case, then it is time to exit Gaza through an agreement with Hamas that ends the war and leads to the release of “hostages” and thousands of Palestinian prisoners. He added that the agreement became better than the day after tomorrow, “and we, as Israelis, must abandon our pride and bear the insult of Hamas remaining in power… and we must hasten to achieve that.”