IDF official says Gaza operation a ‘success’ if it yields calm for 5 years

The head of the IDF Operations Directorate says that if the current round of fighting yields five years of calm, he will consider this campaign to have been a success.

“If you force me into a corner and ask me what is reasonable to consider a success, I would say at least five years and even more than that,” Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva tells the Kan broadcaster.

In a candid on-air interview, Haliva acknowledges that the military did not fully anticipate Hamas’s decision to fire rockets at Jerusalem last week, believing that the Gaza-ruling terror group would have preferred to maintain quiet ahead of the approaching Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr in order to allow residents of the Strip to celebrate in peace.

Yet Haliva says that while Hamas initiated the current round of violence, the IDF responded far more forcefully than the terror group expected.