Police chief: Defense establishment has no motivation for Gaza escalation

"The security establishment does not see any motivation to create an escalation in the Gaza Strip, the events there are complex enough."

Police Chief Roni Alsheich at the Israel Bar Association Conference at the David Intercontinental Hotel in Tel Aviv (photo credit: NAAMA COHEN FRIEDMAN/ BAR ASSOCIATION SPOKESWOMAN)
Police Chief Roni Alsheich at the Israel Bar Association Conference at the David Intercontinental Hotel in Tel Aviv
(photo credit: NAAMA COHEN FRIEDMAN/ BAR ASSOCIATION SPOKESWOMAN)
The defense establishment does not seek an escalation in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, according to remarks made by Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich during a speech he delivered at Bar Ilan University on Wednesday.
"The security establishment does not see any motivation to create an escalation in the Gaza Strip, the events there are complex enough, the complexity of players there is big enough that we'll have a few events like we had last night," he said in reference to rocket fire from Gaza which destroyed a home in the city of Beersheba and a second rocket which landed in the sea near the central Israeli city of Bat Yam south of Tel Aviv.
Questioned over the impact the security situation could have on the Temple Mount and the West Bank, Alsheich responded: "We usually manage to isolate the Temple Mount from these events, slowly we took the Temple Mount out of the game using a very controlled and complex strategy."
"Nothing here is an insurance certificate," he added, but said he thought the possibility of the situation in the south having significant reverberations in the West Bank was distant. "Of course, deterioration can drag on over time and capture wider circles, but I suggest not to frighten the public and to focus on the south at the moment," Alsheich asserted.