An Israeli military commander acknowledged the difficulty of the confrontation with the Hamas movement in the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, stressing that dismantling the movement in this city would require at least two years.

This came in statements made by the commander of the 12th Brigade in the Israeli army, Colonel Afri Elbaz, to the private Hebrew Channel 12, which contradict estimates by the Israeli army that claimed that it was possible to declare the defeat of Hamas in Rafah within days.

Elbaz said: “Patience and time are needed to dismantle and uproot Hamas’ huge infrastructure in Rafah.”

He explained that Hamas “is waging a guerrilla war in Rafah, carried out by independent groups without coordination between them,” “which makes dealing with it much more difficult, and requires a different behavior and a different way of thinking from us.”

He added: “I estimate that the dismantling of Hamas’ infrastructure in Rafah will continue for at least another two years.” The commander of the 12th Brigade, a reserve infantry brigade, described those who believe that the firing of rockets from Gaza towards Israel will stop next year as “like someone throwing sand in the eyes.”

He continued: “You cannot kill a monster (as he described it) that has grown for more than a decade in less than eight months. It requires time and requires great military pressure.” Elbaz claimed that "there is no faltering by the Israeli army in Rafah, but there is only talk of slow fighting."

He pointed out that “the Rafah Brigade (affiliated with Hamas) is known for its expertise in the field of explosives, and it studied us well.”

Despite international warnings about the repercussions of the operation in Rafah, Israel announced on May 6 that it had begun attacking the city, which sparked a wave of anger, Arab and international condemnations, and fears of massacres in the city, which was crowded with displaced people.

Elbaz considered that the dismantling of Hamas in Gaza is worth the price paid by the Israeli army, “even if it means that we will be in a situation like the Lebanese mud,” referring to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon between 1982 and 1985.

The statements of the Israeli military commander contradict the Israeli Army Radio announcement, on Tuesday, that the army’s estimates indicate that “it will be possible within a few days to announce the defeat of the Rafah Brigade”; Which means "the transition to the third phase of the war," after the first was bombing from outside the Gaza Strip and the second was a ground incursion into it.

In recent weeks, Israeli media have indicated that the third phase of the war means moving from intensive bombing of the Gaza Strip to targeted bombing based on intelligence information.

(Anatolia, Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed)