From the Liveblog of
Saturday, October 28, 2023
Ex-general: Allow a brief ceasefire and aid to enter Gaza, but only if Red Cross visits hostages and Shifa is evacuated
IDF Maj-Gen (ret.) Giora Eiland, a former IDF operations chief and ex-head of the National Security Council, tells Channel 12 he believes Israel is in “an existential war.” As such, the impact on civilians in the enemy state next door may need to be extremely high but would still be considered “proportionate.”
He quotes the former prime minister Ariel Sharon saying, “The Jews have the right to live, too.”
Israel has to decide which is more essential, he says: “To look good in the eyes of the West or to terrify the Middle East environment?”
Even within that framework, however, he stresses, there is certainly room to offer humanitarian assistance to Gazans, but it must done within parameters that serve Israel’s essential interests.
For example, he says, Israel could offer a 12-hour ceasefire during which humanitarian aid is allowed into the Strip — but only on condition that the Red Cross goes in, too, and sees the hostages and ascertains their fate, and that Shifa Hospital, under which Hamas maintains its main operations base, is evacuated.
He says there is no reason whatsoever for Israel to help the Hamas administration in Gaza, “and certainly not with fuel.”
It is not sufficient for Israel to be merely endlessly repeating that “Hamas is bad,” without creating maximal room for military maneuver to destroy Hamas militarily and administratively, Eiland says. He notes that, as with the Nazis, Hamas in Gaza is not only a war machine but an administration serving that machine, and it too must be taken down.
He also implores the Israeli leadership to utilize solidarity visits and support from world leaders not merely as a PR exercise, but to urge them to publicly endorse essential steps to help Israel destroy Hamas, such as calling on Gazans to evacuate areas where Israel is tacking the terrorists.
