Israel could 'collapse within a year' if war of attrition continues, warns retired General
Retired Israeli Major-General, Yitzhak Brik, warned Thursday that Israel could face “collapse within a year” if its current war against Palestinian group, Hamas, and Lebanese movement, Hezbollah, continues.
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“If the war of attrition against Hamas and Hezbollah continues, Israel will collapse within no more than a year.”
The Israeli army has launched a brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip since a 7 October Hamas attack, killing nearly 40,300 people, mostly women and children, and injuring over 93,100 others.
The onslaught has triggered months of cross-border attacks between Hezbollah and Israel, amid fears of a full-blown war between the two sides.
Brik cast doubts on claims of Israeli officials about Hamas surrender and that its leader, Yahya Sinwar, would be caught.
“Most of the pretentious declarations made by Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, throughout the war in Gaza have proven to be groundless,” he said.
“With these pronouncements, Gallant, along with his colleagues, IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has been throwing dust in the eyes of the Israeli public,” he added.
The retired General said that Gallant has begun to realise that “the concept of total victory in Gaza is nonsense”.
“It seems that he has begun to realise that failing to reach a hostage deal with Hamas would lead to a regional war that would put Israel in serious danger,” Brik said.
As for a potential hostage swap deal with Hamas, he said it has “become impossible” to achieve what Israel could have gained earlier with a ceasefire deal “due to the new conditions that Netanyahu introduced into the proposed deal.”
For months, the US, Qatar and Egypt have been trying to reach an agreement between Israel and Hamas to ensure a prisoner exchange and ceasefire and allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza. But mediation efforts have been stalled due to Netanyahu’s refusal to meet Hamas’s demands to stop the war.
Israel has continued its brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip following an attack by Hamas last 7 October, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire.
An Israeli blockade of Gaza has led to severe shortages of food, clean water and medicine, leaving much of the region in ruins.
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on 6 May.
