Major General Charlie Herbert, a military analyst and former NATO adviser, has spoken about the challenges facing IDF as Israeli forces advance attacks against hamas in Gaza.
He says destroying Hamas represents “a hugely ambitious military strategy or military objective”.
“But to do that within what appears to be the political vacuum which we have at the moment, adds real complexity to this,” he adds.
Turning to the situation now, he says Israel has done well so far in getting into Gaza with relative ease, but has difficult operations ahead of it.
“The break-in battle is complete, it’s been relatively straightforward for the Israelis.
“They’ve managed to drive a wedge and effectively split Gaza from north to south and isolate Gaza City, which is a Hamas stronghold in the north, as well as pushing an armoured thrust up into the north.”
As a result of those efforts, Hamas fighters in the north are now effectively isolated in Gaza City, he says.
“What we’re going to see next, I suspect, is a very difficult period of operations for the Israeli forces, [and we] will almost definitely see an intensification of the air campaign.”
“They’ll probably be able to defeat Hamas in the north, probably be able to take Gaza City, the question is what follows?” he says.
“That’s just half of [the] Gaza Strip, they’re still going to have Hamas in the south and the chances are they’ll still be able to launch rockets into Israel.”
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