Britannia Radio

'Another war with Hamas is inevitable'

Jan. 10, 2010
JPost.com Staff , THE JERUSALEM POST

Smoke rises in Gaza City during Operation Cast Lead.

Just over a year after IDF Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip, former OC Southern Command Maj.-Gen. Yom Tov Samia on Sunday predicted that another war with Hamas was practically inevitable and would take place in the near future.

 

"We are before another round in Gaza," Samia told Army Radio in an interview. "I am very skeptical about the possibility that Hamas will suddenly surrender or change its ways without being hit much more seriously than it was during Cast Lead."

 

Israel must carry out "a more focused strike with long-lasting results" the former commander said, and advised that the in the next war, the army should take control of certain areas in Gaza so that Hamas understands its own actions have lead to this loss.

"We must create a situation in which Hamas runs out of oxygen," Samia told the radio station.

 

Samia went on to say that Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas the Fatah movement have virtually no supporters in the Gaza Strip. They are "certainly very weak or almost non existent in the Strip. For Abu Mazen (Abbas), the best chance at returning to power is taking a serious, significant and critical step that would drive Hamas out of power," Samia said.

 

Samia's remarks came days after OC Southern Command Maj.-Gen. Yoav Galant warned on Wednesday that the quiet in Israel's South may be temporary.

"It's true that we are after the first rains and the sun is shining - but one can see dark clouds in the distance," Galant said during a tour with heads of regional councils marking a year since Operation Cast Lead.

However, Galant stressed that the IDF was training and preparing to face the trouble ahead, and added that "civilians are rightly preparing themselves for another round of fighting."

 

In related news, Hamas on Friday boasted that it had managed to smuggle new types of weapons into the Gaza Strip despite the blockade, and published photographs of some of the arms it allegedly obtained.

Izz al-Din al- Kassam Brigades published photographs of newly acquired weapons including missiles with a double warhead, 107-mm caliber missiles designed to penetrate fortified structures, and a new type of armor-piercing RPG missile.

 

Hamas spokesman Abu Ubeida warned that the group has "thousands of fighters and good weapons capable of harming Israel."

This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1262339441025&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull