War of Iron Swords: General (res.) Dan Harelformer deputy chief of staff and commander of the Southern Command, was interviewed today (Thursday) on Nissim Mashal and Tal Shalu’s program on 103FM, and commented on the continuation of the war in Gaza.
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“In terms of the fighting in Gaza, I want to separate two levels, the tactical and the strategic,” Harel said at the beginning of his remarks, “The number of forces in Gaza has been dramatically depleted, mainly reserve units that have gone out to rest, prepare and perhaps move to the north. We have a small military base in Gaza today, Since northern Gaza and the central camps were under operational control, there are and will be terrorists there who dream of being guerrillas, but the regimental frameworks have been completely broken. Some of them tried, a large part were killed and right now there is guerrilla warfare there.”
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“The remaining units are inside defenders and operate according to missions, intelligence, etc.,” he added, “the only place where there is fighting is Khan Yunis, where there is the 98th Division with 6 brigades carrying out combat there, but the combat, with one exception, is not carried out on the horizontal plane , but very much in the vertical plane. That is, they penetrate tunnels, clean tunnels.”
He was then asked if the IDF penetrates the tunnels because there is an assumption that the top Hamas, Sinwar and Daf. To this he replied: “I think so, there are probably abductees there as well, not all of them, some of them.”
Hamas leadership (Photo: Reuters)
He also raised the question of how the IDF will be able to launch an assassination operation when the Hamas leadership surrounds itself with hostages. Harel clarified that “it is possible to launch, and when they come to a dilemma they will have to solve it. The solution will be if they ask me leaning to the side of the abductees, and it may be possible to give a pass to the top of Hamas. I don’t think we’ll get to that point. I don’t think that Sinwar, for me, is not the image of victory. If we kill him there will be another Yahya, on the same day. Therefore, I suggest that we stop looking for symbols and focus on the tasks that the political echelon has given to the army.”
“The political road told the army, ‘You will severely damage the military capabilities of Hamas, you will severely damage the organizational capabilities of Hamas and its ability to govern.’ The rest tried everywhere. So it’s a very hard hit, because the organizational capabilities, we take down the IDF, the Hamas military industry and dismantle it, blow it up, reach the strategic tunnels, hit their high command post, etc.,” he added.
He then noted: “The governmental capabilities were severely damaged, once symbolically when we reached the parliament, and a second time when they took over all the Hamas offices, took everything and whoever wants to control the Strip, if it is Hamas, will have a very, very big problem. If the directives of the political echelon of the military Doing and doing in an amazing way after the terrible failure that we don’t forget on the seventh of October.”
“If I finished and said that in my opinion the army achieved most of the goals set for it by the political level, the problem lies at the strategic level, in the strategic decisions that simply do not exist. An army cannot fight without a political goal, the military activity is basically a continuation of the policy,” said Harel, “therefore, The army went without guidance to what is called in unprofessional language ‘the day after’, I call it the strategic purpose, all the things that need to be decided before the campaign. It didn’t happen, I heard our prime minister say ‘let them fight, there is enough time'”.
After that, he referred to the northern sector: “First of all, I think that the north is connected to the south. What we have is Hezbollah, probably at the behest of its Iranian masters. Therefore, give me a moment to return to Gaza, because it affects the north. Because the day there is peace in Gaza, the north will calm down, will we Willing to live with this relaxation is another discussion. But right now the army has no political purpose, there is no day after, and paradoxically the government is strengthening Hamas, because it has not put any alternative in front of it inside Gaza.”
“Wherever Hamas can, in civilian clothes or policemen’s clothes, they take back control of Gaza, so what do we expect to happen? All our achievements in the Gaza Strip will be destroyed. This is irresponsible behavior that stems from political motives and it is terribly difficult when every day we have soldiers falling and there is no purpose political for this event,” he added.
Benjamin Netanyahu in the War Cabinet (Photo: Kobi Gideon, Chief of Staff)
“I think the equation of military pressure returning the abductees is an internal Israeli game, irrelevant to Hamas,” he claimed, “I’m sorry to say this, I think the return of the abductees is a supreme goal, but we argue among ourselves, Hamas is sitting there, if you are Yahya Sinwar And they would say to you, ‘take a break, give me the hostages and after that we will destroy you’, what would you say? Probably not.”
“I think the government must sit down and discuss the day after Gaza, and from that develop its concept of what to do with the abductees. What is happening today is unprecedented, completely illogical, and the army is fighting when it has no purpose at all. So we will kill another 174 terrorists in the coming week, what have we done? Can Being very ridiculous, but I expect my government to have a plan before it sends the army, and certainly not a government that is unable to sit down and discuss and therefore has been postponing for 100 days. They can’t sit down and discuss because Smotrich and Ben Gvir will not agree on it. It is illogical.” , noted.
In conclusion, Harel said: “On the other side, the strategic influence, those who decide what they will discuss and especially what they will not discuss, they do not see that the prime minister and other government officials are preventing measures against the army, while fighting, because the auditor’s inspection is political. We are inside the event, we are fighting And they require our commanders to collect documents, to design their personal lines of defense, and everyone says ‘don’t look personally politically, there is a war’, and the army is doing exactly the opposite.
Assisted in the preparation of the article: Shani Romano 103FM