“There is not a place in Israel that is safe now. If Hamas is not taken care of, there will literally be no place to go in the country,” according to Israel Defense Forces spokesman Maj. Doron Spielman.
Spielman spoke to The Jerusalem Post from Kibbutz Be’eri in southern Israel, where over 100 of the community’s approximately 1,000 residents were slaughtered on October 7. Israeli strikes targeting Hamas interrupted the conversation frequently with loud booms.
Israel has been conducting airstrikes against Hamas for the past two weeks. The IDF and the Prime Minister’s Office have discussed the possibility of an imminent ground offensive to cripple Hamas’s capacity to function as a government or as a terrorist organization.
The last time Israel entered Gaza was in 2014 in Operation Protective Edge, 67 soldiers were killed. Following the recent attacks that claimed more than 1,400 lives, Spielman acknowledged the reluctance to consider further casualties in a war against Hamas. Nevertheless, he believes that the people of Israel will support such actions.
“This is not Vietnam, 4,000 miles away. The enemy is two miles away,” Spielman said. “The sons or daughters who enter Gaza will be fighting for their homes, literally, behind them. The citizens will stand behind us until the job is done.”
He said, “I think it is going to be very difficult and could be very painful. Not taking action could be more painful.”
However, the IDF and Israel’s intelligence community could not prevent the Hamas massacre. In some instances, such as in Kibbutz Be’eri, it took troops more than eight hours to arrive to engage the terrorists. This has raised questions whether the country can effectively rely on the IDF to deal with Hamas.
Spielman said the troops were caught off guard on October 7. Yet, “when they did show up, they did an excellent job.”
He said, “I think the difference now is that we know our exact mission. Our troops have been incredibly trained. Even before this and now, they’ve been training in urban warfare settings.”
To dismantle Hamas, the IDF needs to go to them
If Israel wants to dismantle Hamas, he said, the country has to go where the terrorists are.
What is the mission?
“To completely dismantle Hamas, both on a governance level and on the military level,” said Spielman. “The idea is that Hamas cannot just pop up again. It’s the idea that you’re rooting out Hamas. You’re pulling the roots out of the ground so that they can no longer have a life force.
“This is a very complicated, long-term mission that our soldiers are ready for.”