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A former spokesman for Israel’s army gave one of many bluntest assessments of the scenario in Israel on Sunday, warning that it will take hours or longer to reclaim all of the cities in southern Israel almost 48 hours after Hamas militants launched a shock assault. He additionally claimed that the army had despatched numerous troops to the southern border to organize for what gave the impression to be a floor invasion of the Gaza Strip.
“The image and the scenario in Israel is a dire one,” Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a reservist in the Israel Defense Forces, mentioned on X, previously often called Twitter, on Sunday. The official Israeli Protection Forces account on X posted a hyperlink to his video assertion. Whereas not an official spokesman anymore, Mr. Conricus has been actively updating Israelis about Israel’s warfare in opposition to Hamas since Saturday. He mentioned that the army had despatched not less than 100,000 reservists to southern Israel close to the border with Gaza.
“We’ve amassed round 100,000 reserve troops who’re at the moment in Southern Israel who’re making ready to execute the duty that the Israeli authorities has designated the IDF to do,” he mentioned. “Our job is to guarantee that on the finish of this warfare, Hamas will not have any army capabilities to threaten Israeli civilians with.”
About 1,000 Hamas fighters crossed into southern Israel on Saturday shortly after the militant group launched a collection of shock rocket assaults on Israeli cities. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared a state of warfare on Saturday as militants captured dozens of cities in southern Israel and attacked a music pageant. They took not less than 150 hostages, in accordance with the Israeli authorities.
Mr. Netanyahu has informed Israelis to organize for a protracted warfare that can shift to “offensive” operations quickly, a reference some have taken to imply that the army will ship floor troops into Gaza.
“Sadly, and that is the in all probability essentially the most dominant issue that can form the actions for the long run, there’s a very great amount of Israeli civilians and troopers held inside Gaza.”
Mr. Conricus stepped into the worldwide spotlight in 2021 when as one of many army’s high spokesmen he introduced the start of an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza that had not actually occurred. He then apologized, saying that he had misunderstood the scenario on the bottom.
When a number of information organizations, together with The New York Occasions, questioned Mr. Conricus then about why he had misled the information media, he known as it an sincere mistake. However he acknowledged that the army had sought to deceive fighters in Gaza by means of a collection of techniques that made it appear as if an invasion had been certainly occurring. He retired from energetic service quickly afterward, although he has stayed concerned within the army’s info operation.
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