Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has stated that the operation in the Gaza Strip could last up to three months, according to The Times of Israel.
He noted that the Hamas movement must be eliminated as a result of the ground operation.
“This should be the last [ground] maneuver in Gaza for the simple reason that there will be no more Hamas after it. It will take a month, two, three, but ultimately Hamas will not exist,” Gallant said at the Israeli Air Force command center in Tel Aviv.
A few days earlier, Gallant announced that Israeli military forces had been given permission to conduct an operation in the Gaza Strip.
On October 20, Israeli Ambassador to Russia Alexander Ben-Zvi revealed that Israel had decided to initiate a ground operation in the Gaza Strip.
However, various sources reported that the operation was being postponed, partly due to weather conditions.
The objective of the operation is said to be the destruction of the top political and military hierarchy of Hamas and the capture of the city of Gaza. The capture of Gaza would be Israel’s largest ground operation since its invasion of Lebanon in 2006.
Earlier, a political analyst identified one of the reasons for the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
