“Israel has decided to act and go all the way in the face of this threat,” analyzes General Jean-Paul Paloméros

“Israel wants to be master of its destiny, has decided to act in this way and to go all the way in the face of this threat”declared Friday October 27 on franceinfo General Jean-Paul Paloméros, former chief of staff of the French air force and commander within NATO, while the Israeli army announced that it had intensified its strikes “in a very significant way” on the Gaza Strip. For the general, this is the offensive announced by the Israeli army: “Israeli leaders have never left any doubt about their desire to go to the end. The end will be to seek out Hamas where it is to dig it up”.

franceinfo: The Israeli army accuses Hamas of using the main hospital in Gaza as a shield for its tunnels and operational centers. Do you think this is the result of several weeks of intelligence?

Jean-Paul Paloméros: Without a doubt. Intelligence operations are essential in this type of operation. Hamas is fully integrated into the Palestinian population in Gaza. We must not forget that he has governed since 2006. We must face the facts, the war is underway and is hitting civilians in particular.

Is this the offensive announced by Tel Aviv after the attacks three weeks ago?

Unquestionably. Israeli leaders have never left any doubt about their desire to go all the way. The end goal will be to go after Hamas where it is to dig it up – since Hamas lives a lot in tunnels – and to extirpate it from the population, while trying to save hostages. The operation that we are seeing developing at the moment is typically a large-scale joint-army operation, to weaken Hamas as much as possible before Israeli soldiers take up positions in Gaza, in the strategic centers of Gaza. The Israelis could not wait much longer. Israel wants to be master of its destiny and has decided to act in this way and go all the way in the face of this threat.

Do you think such an offensive can start at night?

This is an advantage for the Israelis who are better equipped than Hamas in every respect. These night operations are much more effective in confusing the adversary and blinding him in some way.

Hamas calls on the world to act to stop the strikes in Gaza, who can respond and join it?

Hamas committed suicide by launching this operation. He knows Israel very well and knew that the Israelis would not give up. They have never given up since 1948. Israeli leaders have this heavy responsibility in the face of history to ensure the sovereignty of their country. They do this according to the modes of action that seem most appropriate to them. They no longer want this kind of coexistence with Hamas in this region. We must expect a hard and long war.