Israel should control Gaza for at least two or three years to eradicate Hamas from the area, according to Yoni Ben Menachem of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs.
WHERE TO HAMAS?
Speaking to ILTV News, Ben Menachem said that only if Israel takes over Gaza and “works freely” could it kill all the terrorists, dismantle Hamas’s military infrastructure and destroy the tunnels.
“This is a long process,” Ben Menachem said. “We cannot do it now without the full control in Gaza and also controlling the civilians.”
As such, he said it is premature to sign any ceasefire agreement with Hamas, which he anyway does not believe will bring Israel’s hostages home.
On Monday, G20 leaders, the leaders of the world’s biggest economies, called for “comprehensive” ceasefires in both Gaza and Lebanon in a joint statement at a summit in Brazil.
But Ben Menachem said that Hamas has no intention of signing a deal and that Israel has not done enough militarily to bring the hostages back.
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Israelis remember the victims of the Hamas massacre and the hostages still held in Gaza
(Photo: Mahmoud Illean / AP)
“The IDF did not apply enough pressure, military pressure, in Gaza in order to find the hostages, and they did not make enough intelligence effort to locate the hostages,” he told ILTV. “What is needed is to bring more forces into Gaza and intensify the intelligence gathering in order to get to the hostages.”
He said Hamas would continue to blame Israel for not signing a deal, but if ultimately something was signed, he does not believe the hostages would come home anyway.
“This is why we have to do it ourselves,” he said.