Hacohen criticizes Israel's war strategy, arms smuggling into Gaza – Israel News

Lina Portman3 weeks ago

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Major General (Reserve) and strategic studies researcher Gershon Hacohen asserted that “we view the war incorrectly” regarding Rafah and past incidents involving IDF casualties in the city on Tuesday.

The Second Intifada was marked by increasing attempts by Palestinian terrorist organizations to target IDF armored vehicles, with the aim of causing casualties among our forces. Inspiration came from similar Hezbollah activities against the IDF in Lebanon, using either explosives or RPGs. Most of the munitions were smuggled into the Gaza Strip via tunnels dug under the Philadelphia Highway, passing through the town of Rafah.

One of the unfortunate incidents of the past occurred on May 12, 2004, in the Philadelphia Road area, when terrorists firing RPGs from the roof of a building managed to blow up an IDF armored vehicle. The rocket entered the vehicle and ignited the explosives it was carrying. All five crew members of the armored vehicle were killed.

The event was remembered not only because of the number of victims, but also because hundreds of soldiers from the class commander training course were rushed to the scene to search the ground for the remains of the fallen soldiers and bring them to burial. The images of soldiers digging in the sand, hands on all fours, were shocking. During the rescue operation, two other soldiers who were securing the area were killed.

This week we learned of two mass casualty disasters involving IDF forces in Rafah.

The first occurred with the explosion of a “Namer” armored vehicle, which cost the lives of eight soldiers, and the second – also in Rafah – was the explosion of a booby-trapped building which collapsed on the IDF soldiers, killing five of them.

War costs and strategy

IDF soldiers operate in the Gaza Strip, June 17, 2024 (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

Major General (Reserve) Gershon Hacohen – who, in his last position, served as commander of the General Staff Corps and is a researcher at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, as well as a member of the “Securities” movement ” – speak with Maariv Tuesday to discuss why some might argue that something in the city is causing such events to recur.

Hacohen explained that he was not impressed by terms such as “disasters,” saying: “This is war, and in war there is a price to pay. We see war badly. For those who want to understand why we are seen as a cobweb in the eyes of Hezbollah and criticize Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his rearmament, this is exactly that. The people of Israel are not willing to pay the price of war. »

“Those who do not pay a price have no sovereignty. Part of a ruler's ability is to stand before his people.” He stressed: “I am not minimizing human life” and clarified: “We pay less than in other wars. The Americans lost 4,000 soldiers in 2005.

Hacohen attempted to draw attention to ties with Egypt, particularly regarding arms smuggling into Gaza. He said: “If they had listened to Yigal Allon and opposed the peace agreement and the withdrawal of settlements, there would not have been such intense arms smuggling from Egyptian Sinai to Gaza.

“We returned everything to Egypt down to the last meter. Since the disengagement [from the Gaza Strip, Hamas has] received munitions on a large scale. It's like breaking a leaky plumbing system; you have to close the main valve!”, Hacohen stressed.

“This decision should have taken place from the first days of the war,” he said. “We have to stop all of these smuggling operations. The Egyptians weren't exactly on our side. Will we be able to maintain our hold on the territory? According to what President Biden is asking for, certainly not, because he wants us to withdraw until the last meter, return to the border colonies.

Hacohen then noted: “that in 1945 Germany transformed itself into something else and entered into a process of reconstruction because it succeeded in destroying the police and the cities. To this day, there is a British and American military presence on German soil. »

Major General (Reserve) Hacohen concluded his argument by stating: “We must examine and understand that the pain of war is terrible. Of course, we prefer everything to be investigated later. But there is nothing to do; war has heavy costs. “It’s easy to say that the Israeli army must move north, but that will also have a cost, and someone will start complaining: There’s nothing we can do.”