Ex-top adviser: Israel could invade Gaza if ‘no other choice’

Maj. Gen. (ret) Yaakov Amidror, a former national security adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, says in a conference call with journalists that there is only one aim to the current operation: to stop the rocket fire on Israeli cities and citizens.

He says that Israel could conquer Gaza “and clean it from all the facilities and terrorists of Hamas,” but that such an operation would take months and does not now seem to be among the immediate goals of the current government.

If the security situation continues to deteriorate, though, he says —  “if we do not find a solution through this exchange of fire, and Hamas will not understand what we can do, we will not have any other choice but the big operation, which we don’t want.”

Saying that for Hamas every civilian street and building is a target, Amidror asserts that the organization, which has several thousand rockets with a range of up to 40 kilometers and hundreds with an 80-kilometer range, could continue launching “forever.”

Yaakov Amidror (photo credit: Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

— Mitch Ginsburg