Arab News Japan
TOKYO: Israel’s mission to eliminate Hamas from the Gaza Strip would take 5 months to complete but military operations would remain there for years, an Israeli intelligence expert.
Amos Yadlin, the former Major General head of Israel defence intelligence, in an interview with Nikkei pointed out that it had taken the US five years to undermine the Islamic State in Iraq.
“The goal was to destroy all Hamas operations on the strip whilst saving hostages, but this was a difficult balance to achieve, Yadlin said. He insisted that Israel was certain that Hamas maintained its main operating center under Al-Shifa Hospital but also admitted that collateral damage was likely and expressed his frustrations with the US call to minimize such damage.
Yadlin told Nikkei that if women and children could be released it might also lead to Hamas lowering their demands thus in time, a humanitarian deal would stay in place. He added that about 4% of Israeli’s population were reservists and their absence in the economy as they served in the present military operations was also a factor.
The former head of intelligence moved on to his disappointment with Israel’s failure to prevent the Hamas attack saying that Israel’s world leading cyber technology had become too reliant on signals intelligence (SIGINT) and that human intelligence (HUMINT) was as vital to success despite the risks of misleading information and physical danger.
Amos Yadlin who served in the defense force for over 40 years, is president and founder of MIND Israel, a consulting firm that advises the Israeli government on national security.
