According to Michel Goya, “we are still in a preparatory phase for a larger land operation to conquer the territory of Gaza.”
Targeted incursions into the Gaza Strip carried out by the Israeli army aim “to test Hamas’s defense and force it to open fire”, explained Friday October 27 on franceinfo Michel Goya, former colonel of the Marine troops, military historian. The IDF carried out a new ground incursion on Friday. For the former soldier, it is about“a preparatory phase for a larger land operation to conquer the territory of Gaza”, he assured. But “Israelis cannot fight very long wars”without “mobilize the reservists”, underlined Michel Goya. Time is against Israel, he says. “At some point, most certainly, there will need to be a conquest operation”he explained.
franceinfo: How do you interpret these targeted incursions by the Israeli army into the Gaza Strip?
Michel Goya: They reorganized all their armies into battle groups. Around twenty armored vehicles each time, with a mix of engineering vehicles with armored infantry vehicles, two Merkava tanks. You have about 80 of them along the Gaza Strip. And with that, for now, they are carrying out raids. These are entrances and exits which aim to prepare the ground a little, to open passage routes and possibly clear mines to be able to attack more easily afterwards. But above all to test Hamas’s defense and force it to open fire on them. And then retaliate and destroy as much as possible all the defenders who are identified by distant fire, it wears out the adversary, it toughens the Israeli troops.
Does this also help to avoid losses?
These are operations without much risk. Israeli troops are the best protected and most armored troops in the world. You have vehicles that all exceed fifty or sixty tonnes. Infantry vehicles are also very protected. Basically, they don’t risk much, even if there have already been losses in reality. But on the other hand, it is not these operations which will be decisive.
Isn’t this strategy going to destroy Hamas?
Hamas is two-faced. It is both an armed organization, but it is also a state. If Hamas must be destroyed as a state and as an armed force, there is no other solution than to go inside Gaza, to conquer the entire Gaza Strip. Then inside, destroy as much as possible everything from Hamas that we can.
Are hostages the absolute weapon for Hamas?
It is a very important weapon. This is why they were captured, to serve as bargaining chips, as an instrument of pressure. They made it possible to create a pressure group with families, even with foreign countries because there are a lot of foreigners among these hostages. This is obviously an asset in the hand of Hamas which could possibly use it to perhaps monetize a cease-fire, but which would in some way lead to a victory.
Can these targeted incursions by the Israeli army make it possible to free hostages?
No, it is not precise enough to have information on the hostages who, in any case, are inside Gaza, probably most of them already under Gaza in the tunnels. It is not these operations that make it possible to locate hostages. This is possibly done by other means of electronic intelligence. This is not the aim of these raids in any case.
Can these occasional incursions last long?
There is a fundamental fact of all Israeli wars, which is that the Israelis cannot fight very long wars. To carry out very large-scale, very high-intensity operations, we must mobilize reservists, even if they are not necessarily the ones who will necessarily be engaged on the front line in Gaza. But we need it to perhaps hold the other fronts in the West Bank. The problem is that when you mobilize reservists, you paralyze the life of society. It is not possible to wage wars lasting several months. The last war against Hamas in 2014 lasted 50 days. It was even a record since 1948. There is a problem of duration, undoubtedly. At some point, most certainly, there will need to be a conquest operation which may last a few days or a few weeks, followed perhaps by a cleansing operation which may last a very long time. We are still in a preparatory phase for a larger land operation to conquer the territory of Gaza.