No ceasefire until tunnels demolished, minister says

Science Minister Yaakov Peri says there will be no ceasefire agreement until the tunnels are destroyed, though a temporary humanitarian truce is possible.

“I don’t see a ceasefire happening in the next 2-3 days, in which Israel would pull out of the Gaza Strip,” he tells the Walla news website.

Peri, a former head of the Shin Bet security service, adds that when the IDF launched its ground offensive on July 17, it estimated that it would take between four and five days to fully eliminate the tunnel threat, but after recognizing the complexities involved in demolishing the sites, he says two more days will not suffice to rid Israel of the terror threat — “and I’m not sure two more weeks will either.”

With regard to a humanitarian ceasefire, Peri says that a temporary truce could be reached — between 6 hours and 5 days — but stressed that no permanent arrangement would be set in place until the tunnels are destroyed.

No full ceasefire will be implemented until the tunnels are gone, he says. “We must destroy the tunnels, those we know about and had intelligence about, which is the majority, and several that were discovered on the ground. This is no small job. We don’t have intelligence on everything, it’s not a science, but I want to say honestly that we assess that we will reach most of the tunnels. I hope we reach 100%, but it’s not for sure.”

However, he adds that Israel is not surprised by the sophistication and number of tunnels.

“We had information on ‘the underground city in Gaza’ with a similar number of tunnels as the amount found,” Peri says.

Israel’s long-term goal is to see the disarmament of Gaza from its rocket stockpile and tunnels, he says.

“The US and Egypt support this, and they will be the ones negotiating,” he says.