IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi warns that if tensions continue to escalate on the Israel-Gaza border, the military will not hesitate to launch another campaign in Gaza.
By: Lilach Shoval
Israel will not hesitate to launch another campaign in the Gaza Strip if tensions on the border continue to escalate, Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi said on Monday.
“As soon as ‘Operation Guardian of the Walls’ ended, the IDF began to prepare for another campaign,” he said. “We have improved and continue to improve our warfare capabilities as well as operational plans in the Strip. Unless calm is maintained in the south, we will not hesitate to launch another campaign.”
The Israel-Gaza border has seen weeks of unrest, with Palestinian rioters burning tires and throwing explosives at IDF troops. On Aug. 21, Israeli Border Police officer Bar-El Hadaria Shmueli was shot in the head at the border fence. After fighting for his life at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva for several days, Shmueli succumbed to his wounds on Monday afternoon.
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz also told reporters on Monday that another war with Hamas was on the table.
“Our attacks in Gaza are focused in a way that they target Hamas, depriving it of its capabilities. I cannot guarantee that ‘Operation Guardian of the Walls’ will not resume,” he said.
In another development, JNS reported that Israel is going to lend the Palestinian Authority more than $150 million after Defense Minister Benny Gantz met with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday in Ramallah, Israeli officials said on Monday.
An unnamed source close to Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett told Reuters that he had approved the Gantz-Abbas meeting and saw it as a “routine” matter. “There is no diplomatic process with the Palestinians, nor will there be one,” the source said.
PA official Hussein Al Sheikh said, according to the report, that the talks with Gantz covered “all aspects” of Israeli-Palestinian relations. The talks between Gantz and Abbas took place as Bennett wrapped up his trip to Washington after meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden.
The Israeli government witheld $180 million last month from the 2020 tax revenues collected on behalf of the PA because of the payments the Palestinians make to jailed or killed terrorists and their families.
On an entirely different note, JNS also reported that the European Union on Monday removed Israel, the United States and four other countries from its COVID-19 safe-travel list, meaning that travelers from those countries could now face increased restrictions.
