The head of the Southern Command in the occupied territories, Maj.-Gen. Hertzi Halevy expected that there will be no long-term quiet on the border with Gaza.
“Hamas will try us from time to time, and in my opinion, I do not think we will witness complete calm during the next decade in the Gaza Strip,” Halevy told Israeli Radio Darom.
When asked about the possibility of a military operation in Gaza and reoccupying the Strip, Halevy was skeptical about “how it would improve Israel’s security.”
However, he said, the Israeli regime came close to a military operation with the Palestinian resistance group.
“We came closer to it than any other time,” he told the Israeli radio, as quoted by The Jerusalem Post.
“I think that on the other hand, the way we used our capabilities and power to damage their infrastructure has had an effect. I think the other side understood that it was not right to go any further.”
According to Halevy the biggest threat to Tel Aviv is the “entry of an enemy force, under the ground or the sea or in any other way, without us being able to prevent it – where civilians meet terrorists from Hamas or other organizations.”
He placed the threat of rockets as second with incendiary aerial devices in third.
However, Halvey expressed his support for building a seaport in Gaza saying “it could lower the hostility of Gazans towards Israel if the seaport were to be used as a passage of goods for civilians and not as a tool to bolster Hamas.”
Source: Israeli media
