Former Israeli military officials unanimously agreed that the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) is still present in the northern Gaza Strip, and is capable of confronting the Israeli forces there. Some of them said that Hamas is launching the same attack that it began on the seventh of last October, in different ways.

According to reserve general Alon Avitar, an Arab affairs analyst, Hamas is trying to prove its ability, and it wants to tell Israel that it is still present and in control of the situation, and that it can launch rockets from the northern regions, and in different regions and in broader circles towards Rishon LeZion and the Gush region.

In turn, Reserve General Dan Harel, former Chief of Staff and Head of the Southern Region, said, “Let us ask about the price if they do not do this at the immediate level. It is not possible to recover all the kidnapped people and a group of male and female soldiers will remain.”

Harel added, "It is clear that they will play this game with us, and the future price that the State of Israel will pay is very large, because we cannot live next to this thing they call Hamas. We understood this on October 7, and the lesson is harsh, and it cannot be remedied."

He added, "We are forced to pass through the entire Gaza Strip and strike Hamas in a way that eliminates the possibility of it being a military organization as it is now."

He went on to confirm that Israel is still under the same attack that Hamas initiated on October 7. Through which it targeted the heart of Israeli society and the social fabric.

He said that Hamas is directing all its efforts towards division, disruption, and causing great frustration and upsetting the minds of the Israelis. It is still the same attack, but it is implementing it in a different way and by means of influencing awareness “This whole show was done for exactly that purpose.”

The former military official confirmed that Israel is still far from decisiveness, even in the northern Gaza Strip, where it has achieved “exceptional achievements” tactically. “But we eliminated half of the brigades there, which means we have half the work ahead of us,” he stressed, stressing that so far Israel has not been able to injure senior officers, so the Hamas network is still operating.

In turn, Moshe Ya'alon, former Minister of Defense and Chief of Staff, attacked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and said, "The latter not only refused to bear responsibility for the greatest damage to the State of Israel, which is 75 years old - in reference to the Al-Aqsa flood - but he also believes that it is possible to bear Responsibility of the state ably.”

Ya'alon went on to say that "Netanyahu is neither morally nor fundamentally qualified to extricate us from this harm."

In turn, Amos Malka, reserve general and former head of the Military Intelligence Division, believed that Hamas could not offer more than what it provided in the prisoner and detainee exchange deal, but he stressed that this does not mean the end of negotiations regarding the release of the “kidnapped.”

Source: Al Jazeera