Hamas cannot be defeated by military reoccupation of Gaza, says former head of Israel's Shin Bet

Only the creation of a Palestinian state will ensure Israel's security, Ami Ayalon tells The National

Ami Ayalon, who led the Israeli internal security agency Shin Bet, says the war in Gaza cannot be justified. Getty Images

As Israel's government pushes ahead with plans to reoccupy Gaza, Israeli opponents of the war are becoming more strident, with one telling The National the move would not bring further security to the country but would instead endanger it.

“From a military point of view, we've reached the point we wanted to achieve. The impact now will be that our security will be decreasing,” said Ami Ayalon, a former head of Israel's internal security agency, the Shin Bet.

Mr Ayalon argued that those who say reoccupying Gaza after 22 months of Israeli bombardment would bring an end to Hamas do not understand what occupation means, nor what eliminating the Palestinian militant group would entail.

He said Israel had achieved its military goal of ensuring that Hamas was no longer a threat by killing its leadership, including Yahya Sinwar, his brother Mohammed Sinwar, and Ismail Haniyeh, but this did not put an end to the beliefs they represented.

“You cannot defeat the ideology by the use of military power, but [instead] by presenting a better horizon, which is a state for the Palestinans. Unless we do it, Israel will not be secure.”

Mr Ayalon is one of 550 signatories of an open letter to US President Donald Trump, calling on him to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the war in Gaza immediately.

The former security official acknowledged the heavy toll that Israel's actions have taken on the people of Gaza, something that many in Israel either deny or attribute to “propaganda” by Hamas.

So far, Israel has killed more than 61,000 people in Gaza, and wounded more than 152,000 others, according to local health authorities, whose figures the UN considers to be reliable.

“You have to understand the meaning of occupation. First of all, you have to kill hundreds or thousands of people,” Mr Ayalon said. “You have to be able to control the life every person.”

Israel's military now controls about 75 per cent of Gaza's territory, 20 years after it “disengaged” from the Palestinian territory. It has forced much of Gaza's population into a small area in the south, where more than 40,000 people are living in every square kilometre, according to UN estimates.

Israel's planned offensive on Gaza city, as part of its reoccupation goal, is expected to drive another one million people – half of the enclave's population – into the south.

Internal divisions

Mr Ayalon said a fundamental issue is that Israel views its enemies in one of two ways: either as targets that need to be destroyed, or as statesmen, who will be negotiated with at a later stage.

He referred to the 1973 war in which Israel lost thousands of soldiers in exchange for control of the Sinai Peninsula and withdrew when they established diplomatic relations with Egypt.

Mr Ayalon said the Israeli government's goal of reoccupation and its conduct of the war in Gaza was causing further divisions within Israel.

The government that was elected legally as part of a democratic system no longer represents the people, he said.

“The government has not presented a political goal until today. They refuse to discuss the day after [the war] because they understand that they will not get the support of the people.”

Israeli polls show that at least 70 per cent of people want to bring back the hostages in Gaza and end the war. Hamas and other militant groups are believed to be still holding 50 hostages, of who 20 are alive, out of the 250 people they seized from Israel during the attack on October 7, 2003 that started the war.

Mr Ayalon said the case can no longer be made that killing one person in Gaza is a means to save the lives of many.

“If you cannot prove it to yourself then it's not just. It is against human nature and humanity. So I cannot justify what we are doing today in Gaza.”