Israeli Defence Officials Say Fighting in Gaza Expected to Continue for at Least a Year
Israeli defence officials and former senior intelligence officers have said they expect fighting in Gaza to continue for at least a year, raising the prospect of thousands more civilian casualties, a deepening humanitarian crisis, and a continuing grave threat to regional stability.
According to Israeli defense officials, the center and south of Gaza is “dense and saturated with terrorists” with “an underground city of branching tunnels”. It would take three months to clear the area and fighting would “continue during the year 2024”.
Maj Gen Amos Yadlin, a former head of military intelligence, has compared the current Israeli offensive to that launched by the IDF into the West Bank in 2002. “In 2002 it took two months to get into Palestinian cities and two years to make the terror stop. So Israel is looking at nine months to a year [in Gaza]. It depends on how long Hamas will hold [on],” he said.
Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said the war will not end until the aims of “crushing” Hamas, freeing Israeli hostages, and ensuring that Gaza poses no further security threat to Israel are met.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 22,400 people, the majority of whom are women and children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in the territory. The offensive was launched after Hamas sent thousands of militants into southern Israel, where they killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted about 240 others.
The war in Gaza has also led to an increase in violence in the occupied West Bank, with nine people being killed in an Israeli airstrike on the northern city of Jenin, according to Palestinian authorities.
There are still 139 hostages being held in Gaza, including civilians and military personnel, though some are thought to have been killed during the fighting.
The new timeline for the duration of the fighting in Gaza will concern international observers worried about regional instability and aid agencies who have described a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. International demands for Israel to protect civilians in Gaza, allow more aid to reach the territory, and offer more detailed proposals for the governance of the territory when the military offensive ends are also expected.