Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant detailed the country’s plan to defeat Hamas in a defense committee meeting on Friday, but gave no indication of how it plans to police the region once the fighting stops.
Speaking at a meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in Tel Aviv, Gallant laid out Israel’s strategy to defeat the terrorist group responsible for the October 7 surprise attack that killed more than 1,300 Israelis.
He told the committee members that the war would take place in three different phases.
The first phase, which is underway, will involve a military campaign of airstrikes and then ground operations “with the aim of destroying operatives and destroying infrastructure to defeat and destroy Hamas,” Gallant said.
The second phase will still involve fighting, but at a reduced intensity as the military shifts its focus to “eliminating pockets of resistance” that remain in the region.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant presented the country’s three-phase strategy to defeat Hamas at a defense committee meeting in Tel Aviv on Friday.REUTERS Overnight Israeli airstrikes flattened several buildings on Friday in the town of al-Zahra, south of Gaza City. AFP via Getty Images
Ultimately, Gallant said, as the war enters its third phase, Israel will seek to establish a “new security regime” in Gaza.
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Notably, this final phase will involve “removing Israel’s responsibility for daily life in the Gaza Strip,” which will bring “a new security reality for Israeli citizens” and those living in close proximity to Gaza.
As the war enters its planned second phase, fighting will gradually ease as troops begin to find and eliminate any remaining “pockets of resistance” in the region.AP
Absent from his statement was any indication that Israel was washing its hands of any responsibility for Gaza and its 2.2 million inhabitants would mean for the region, which is completely dependent on Israel for essential services such as water and electricity.
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Israel has already announced plans to create a broad demilitarized zone around the Gaza Strip after it completes its impending ground invasion.
The expected DMZ would extend the length of the 40-mile fence that currently surrounds the Peninsula while enhancing its extensive defensive capabilities, according to CNN’s Nic Robertson, who spoke with Israeli ministers about the plan.
Palestinians mourn the dead of the Awaja family who were killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip on Friday.AP
“That border fence area, which has an electronic border fence that has sensors on it, that has cameras on it, a wall behind it that drops deep into the ground to protect against tunnels, and a small buffer zone behind it. That’s going to be much, much broader,” Robertson reported Thursday.
Additional reporting by Alex Oliveira
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
