Israel has plans for large-scale campaign against Hamas if talks fail — report

If Israel decides that hostage talks with Hamas are fruitless or that the terror groups’ demands are too high, it has plans for an escalatory military campaign against Hamas, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The report points at possibly cutting off electricity and water as the next stage, after Israel declared that it would not let new aid shipments into the Gaza Strip.

Citing an “Israeli security analyst briefed on the plan,” the WSJ says that Israel could then use airstrikes and raids. The analyst says that the next stage could be pushing Palestinians out of the northern Gaza Strip once again.

According to the analyst, “The preliminary stages of escalation could take up to two months, during which time Israel could begin to remobilize its forces for a large invasion of Gaza with sufficient troops to hold ground.”