IDF chief supports ‘arrangement’ with Hamas, touts Israel’s success in countering Gazan terror

The IDF believes that it has succeeded in preventing Hamas from wearing down Israel’s resolve.

By World Israel News Staff 

The Israeli security cabinet is convening Wednesday and is expected to discuss an arrangement that would bring at least short-term calm between the Jewish State and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Despite widespread skepticism in Jerusalem over the intentions of Hamas, which still believes in destroying Israel, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi is among those who support reaching an arrangement with Gaza to provide some sense of normalcy.

Citing a speech which the military chief delivered last week, Walla! News reports that despite criticism within Israel over what is viewed as a lack of a strong response by the Israeli military to attacks from Gaza, the IDF believes that it has succeeded in preventing Hamas from wearing down Israel’s resolve.

The military is said to be expressing satisfaction that the incendiary balloon and kite attacks, along with the fires along the Gazan border, have subsided and the violent protests on Fridays have been reduced.

However, it has not been just the Israeli military actions which have created a calmer reality. First, there is an acknowledgement that a strong stand shown by Israeli civilians who live in small communities near Gaza has helped the IDF’s efforts.

In addition, notes Kochavi, Hamas is aware of the importance of maintaining a certain level of socio-economic well-being among the citizens in its territory, and therefore, he says, the terror group turned to Egypt for help in arranging a normalization process in which the violence against Israel is put on hold while economics are given priority.

The military chief, says Walla! News, states that the shift in Hamas’s priorities has been in progress since the summer, which is why when rockets are fired from Gaza into Israel, Hamas often rushes to announce that it was not behind the attack.

Kochavi reportedly asserts that Gaza Islamic Jihad commander Bahaa Abu-Al-Ata, who was said to be planning more attacks against Israel, stood in the way of this process of producing economic normalcy, only underlining further the need for Israel to assassinate him in November.

The killing of the arch-terrorist produced a “very significant opportunity that has been placed at our doorstep,” says the Israeli military chief, as cited by the news website.

“In return for a significant improvement in the security situation in the Gaza Strip,” said Kochavi, “Israel would allow for easing civilian conditions” for Gazan residents.

It is something that Israel has been wanting to do anyway, reports Walla! News, in order to improve humanitarian conditions in the enclave.

The arrangement for establishing calm that is under discussion speaks only of a year. During this time, Hamas would commit to preventing attacks from Gaza and ceasing efforts to bolster terror in Judea and Samaria, which includes areas where the Palestinian Authority has jurisdiction.

The arrangement would also call for stepped-up talks on gaining the release of missing and captive Israeli soldiers and civilians held in Gaza.