AMU Homeland Security Opinion

Israeli Soldier Killed Not Captured, Changes Things

By Brett Daniel Shehadey
Special Contributor for In Homeland Security

Israel unilaterally declared a 72-hour truce broken and intensified the military operation against Hamas over suspicions that one soldier was taken hostage. Today that soldier, 2nd Lt. Hadar Goldin, was found to be killed in action, and Israel begins to redeploy some ground forces from Gaza.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s objective remains the same: to “restore peace and calm” to Israel. “We will take as much time as necessary, and will exert as much force as needed.”

“I will not say when the operation is going to end. We will redeploy in places that are good for us to create less friction.”

Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said the military was “nearing completion of the destruction of Gaza’s attack tunnels,” which was the last remaining of reasons given for the military operation in Gaza, after attacking leadership, weapons caches and active rocket firing positions.

Israel rejected Egypt backed peace-talks with Hamas at this time.

Operation Protective Edge began on July 8 in response to an escalation of rocket attacks from Hamas against their civilian population and the kidnapping and mutilation of three Jewish teenagers by suspected Hamas membership. Hamas never admitted to abducting the teens but Jewish militants soon abducted and killed a teenage Palestinian.

On June 12, Israeli Defense Force (IDF) in Operation Brother’s Keeper cracked down with raids into the West Bank and arrested much of the Hamas West Bank leadership. Airstrikes into Gaza, in early July, homed in on Hamas leadership and received intensified rockets fired from Gaza aimed at “all” Israelis.

Operation Protective Edge began mainly with airstrikes as an escalation that led up to a ground offensive starting in July 17; and currently undergoing “redeployment,” with a possible end in sight.

According to a Jerusalem Post article, Israeli military intelligence generated a master target list of 1,257 terrorist assets prior to the Operation and then acquired 2,423 more targets from the fighting. Operation Protective Edge permitted the IDF to carry out some 3,800 attacks against Hamas targets; and all at the expense of displacing 450,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, killing 1,700, of which 70 percent are reported to be civilians (according to UN and other sources); over 9,000 wounded, and less than 70 Israeli deaths.

It is not over but hopefully there is a cooling off period that will allow for the long-sought humanitarian aid of food, water, shelter and medical supplies.

Comments are closed.