Israel carries out limited raids in Gaza, is it the start of a new phase?
Liam Collins, Retired US Special Forces Colonel joins CGTN Europe on the latest of Israel-Hamas conflict.
Transcript
00:00 Let's talk now to Liam Collins, who's a retired US Special Forces Colonel.
00:04 Good to see you again, Colonel Collins.
00:06 Welcome back to the program.
00:07 So as our correspondent was reporting there, we have seen some small raids by Israel into
00:12 Gaza.
00:13 Does this look like the start of a new phase?
00:16 Yeah, I mean, when they get, when they're ready for it, I mean, I think what you've
00:19 seen is right, the mobilization of the reserves, it takes time for them.
00:22 They have a war plan that's on the shelf, but they really have to refine that for the
00:25 specific operation based on specific intelligence.
00:28 So that's what they're doing right now, preparing for that grounding invasion into the Gaza,
00:33 which could happen any day now.
00:34 There's been lots of talk about this full scale ground offensive by Israel, seemingly
00:39 delayed though.
00:40 Why do you think that is?
00:41 Is it down to the United States calling for a delay so they can try and get the hostages
00:46 held by Hamas out safely?
00:48 Yeah, I mean, without a doubt, that's factoring into this.
00:52 I mean, one is the Israelis want to be better prepared for it.
00:54 But part of it is right, these dozens of hostages, many of them that aren't just Israeli, but
00:58 they're dual citizens or foreigners, that they're being held.
01:01 And obviously, they're going to be put at graver risk with any kind of ground invasion,
01:05 depending on what kind of rules they've given to the, you know, for their people that are
01:08 holding the hostages.
01:09 So that's most likely one of the other delays.
01:11 And Israel, right, it was delayed from the onset because they're trying to move civilians
01:15 out of the combat zone, right, as they're trying to displace them to the south to minimize
01:19 those civilian casualties to try to clear it.
01:21 So that also was the cause of the delay.
01:24 But I think that's not really the explanation at this point.
01:26 So you said you thought that it could start a ground operation within days.
01:31 Is a ground operation now inevitable?
01:35 I would think so.
01:36 I mean, if you look in 2009 and 2014, based off of significantly smaller attacks or justifications
01:42 into Israel, they launched ground invasions into Gaza that took 14 and 19 days.
01:47 If you really want to degrade, they say defeat Hamas capability, you're not going to be able
01:52 to do that, but really degrade Hamas capability so that they aren't able to conduct the
01:56 large attack like this again, where they killed, you know, hundreds or thousands of, you know,
02:01 Israeli and foreign citizens that were civilians.
02:05 That almost never can be done by air alone without really, really good intelligence.
02:10 And so that almost to do that requires a ground invasion to go out there and hit the logistic
02:14 points, hit the leadership and eliminate those.
02:18 And do you think that is actually possible?
02:20 Can Hamas be dismantled in a ground offensive?
02:24 They can be degraded.
02:25 They can't be destroyed, right?
02:26 As long as, you know, the underlying, you know, roots of the conflict aren't being addressed,
02:31 there's going to be some kind of resistance.
02:34 But what Israel wants to do is degrade it to such a level that they're not capable of
02:37 conducting a large cross-border raid like they conducted a couple of weeks ago.
02:42 So that's really what their goal is.
02:43 And that they can, they are capable of doing that.
02:47 Colonel Collins, good to speak to you.
02:48 Thank you for joining us today.
02:49 That's Liam Collins, retired U.S. Special Forces Colonel.
02:52 [BLANK_AUDIO]