Former CIA director: Israel understands magnitude of the difficulty ahead
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BLOG – Israel at war; Hamas hostages: Day 56

Israel-Hamas ceasefire extended for 24 hours; at least 8 hostages expected to be released on Thursday

October 17, 2023, 12:05 pm Edit
Hostages released since the truce: Eitan Yahalomi with his mother and Emily Hand with her father
Hostages released since the truce: Eitan Yahalomi with his mother and Emily Hand with her father
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12:05 pm

Former CIA director: Israel understands magnitude of the difficulty ahead

Former CIA director general David Petraeus has said the “Israeli military leadership clearly understand the magnitude of the difficulty that lies ahead”.

In a pre-recorded interview Mr Petraeus, the former leader of US and international forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “They (Israeli military chiefs) understand the challenges of fighting an enemy who doesn’t wear a uniform, in a densely populated area with a lot of civilians and doesn’t have the regard for civilian life that we do, who will have booby traps, rooms that blow up, improvised explosive devices, even suicide vest bombers.

“And of course, there are nearly 200 hostages, not to mention, the challenge for Israeli soldiers and the losses they’ll incur as they have to clear and hold areas if they’re truly to destroy Hamas to the extent that they can, by the way that means destroying every headquarters, base, facility, many of which will be underneath hospitals, weapons storage in mosques.

“But then how do you keep them from reconstituting? And there should be a vision provided not just for what they’re going to do to Hamas, but also for what they’re going to do for the people of Gaza once they have destroyed, inevitably, a lot of their basic services, their infrastructure, dwellings and so on. So the enormity of the challenges here just can’t be overstated.”