Benny Gantz sees a lengthy operation
The war between Israel and Hamas could last months. And reconstruction after Hamas’s October 7 attacks will take years was the assessment of Israel’s former Defence Minister and Chief of Staff Benny Gantz. According to Gantz, it will take months before Israel achieves its goal in the Gaza Strip in the south. If the fighting expands northwards – in the form of attacks by Hezbollah in Lebanon – it will take even longer. “It will take a long time. The war in the south – and if necessary in the north or elsewhere – could take months, and reconstruction would take years,” Gantz said, according to the Times of Israel.
“Only when reconstruction is complete will we have won,” said Gantz, one of Israel’s opposition leaders who recently joined the emergency government with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Gantz was speaking at the funeral of Mayor Ofir Libstein on Wednesday. Libstein was killed fighting Hamas in the kibbutz Kfar Aza, close to Gaza.
Earlier on Thursday, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told Israeli ground soldiers near the Gaza Strip that they will soon see (Ed: Gaza) “from the inside,” according to Reuters. “Right now you are seeing Gaza from a distance. Soon you will see it from the inside. The order is coming,” he said, according to a statement from the defence minister’s office. /ritzau/