Former Deputy Chief of Staff of the Israeli Army: "We Will Not Achieve the Goal of Eliminating Hamas"

Israeli reserve general Yair Golan stated that the aggressive campaign in the Gaza Strip "will not succeed in eliminating Hamas." In an interview with Haaretz, the former Deputy Chief of Staff expressed that "the elimination of the Hamas movement will not be achieved, at least not in the near future." Golan noted that "the factor of time" is pressing on Israel and added, "Israel has a few weeks to complete the ground operation throughout the Gaza Strip." He urged the Israeli government to focus on retrieving the hostages taken by the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades and other resistance factions during the "Al-Aqsa Flood" attack. Golan argued that Israel should replicate the idea of "Protective Edge," which was implemented in the West Bank in April 2002, by continuing "operations" in the subsequent years against the resistance. He is considered an opponent of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and has observed that the "Al-Aqsa Flood" operation has destroyed the "conflict management" project that the right-wing camp had worked on for years, which focused on continuing the occupation and settlement activities, besieging Gaza, preventing any "political project" for the Palestinians, and concentrating on economic projects to "subdue the Palestinian society."