Former Israeli officials affirm ‘Hamas is no longer a threat’

Affirming that Hamas no longer poses a threat, some 600 retired Israeli security officials, including former intelligence bosses, have asked US President Donald Trump to exert pressure on Israel to end the war in Gaza immediately.

“It is our professional judgement that Hamas no longer poses a strategic threat to Israel,” the officials said in a group statement. “Your credibility with the vast majority of Israelis augments your ability to steer Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu and his government in the right direction: End the war, return the hostages, stop the suffering.”

One of the signatories, ex-domestic intelligence agency chief Ami Ayalon, told the BBC that further military action would be useless. 

‘Hamas is totally destroyed’

“From the military point of view, [Hamas] is totally destroyed. On the other hand, as an ideology, it is getting more and more power among the Palestinian people, within the Arab street around us, and also in the world of Islam,” Ayalon said. “So the only way to defeat Hamas’s ideology is to present a better future.”

It’s unclear what they expect from Trump, who has consistently backed Israel. However, last week, he publicly accepted there was “real starvation” in Gaza after Netanyahu insisted there was no such thing.

Unfazed by opposition to his plans for the Palestine territories, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to propose fully reoccupying the Gaza Strip when he meets his security cabinet, the BBC reported on Tuesday evening, August 5th.

Netanyahu wants ‘full conquest of Gaza’

“The die has been cast. We’re going for the full conquest of the Gaza Strip – and defeating Hamas,” local journalists quote a senior official as saying, according to the British news outlet.

Israel’s military has reported that it already controls 75 per cent of Gaza. But under the proposed plan, it would occupy the entire territory – moving into areas where more than two million Palestinians are now concentrated. 

About 90 per cent of Gaza’s 2.1 million people have already been displaced, some repeatedly, and are living in overcrowded and dire conditions. 

The families of Hamas’ hostages want Netanyahu’s plans to move forward because they believe that otherwise, their relatives are at risk of dying, with 20 out of 50 still considered to be alive in Gaza.

But apart from the group of 600 former Jewish state security and intelligence officials, polls of Israelis suggest that three in four are also in favour of a ceasefire.

Several of Israel’s closest allies also condemn Netanyahu’s move as they push for an end to the war and action to alleviate a humanitarian crisis.