‘We have to fight all over the Gaza Strip’

Despite the return of the first 50 prisoners to Israeli territory and the temporary ceasefire, clashes on the ground in the Gaza Strip have resumed, while the security services continue to search for the abductees. 

Kathimerini contacted the former director of the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), Yaakov Peri, and interviewed him about the future of the war. The experienced security officer tells us about the difficulties in locating the hostages and adds that Israeli forces will operate throughout the Gaza Strip.

Νearly two months after the attack on Israel, Hamas is still holding dozens of hostages. Knowing that Israel has agents and informants in Gaza, why is it so difficult to track their location?

In Gaza, there are 140 Israeli hostages divided into three groups. The first group is those held by civilians. The Palestinian civilians who invaded Israel on October 7 entered the settlements and took one hostage each to their home. The second group is Hamas, which is holding about 70 to 100 hostages. And the third is Islamic Jihad, which is holding about 30 to 50 hostages. So we do not have a clear picture of how many each organization is holding, or where, because hostages are their most powerful bargaining chip. Hamas asked for an agreement to exchange Palestinian prisoners with Israel to return the hostages, and so the ceasefire came about. The terrorists know that the issue of the prisoners is causing great pain to the Israelis and the families of the hostages, so they will play on the psychological factor to gain time to prepare for the next stages of the war.

Israel has targeted the Al-Sifa hospital as a Hamas operational center. If the Israeli services knew it was being used as a Hamas command center, why didn’t they act sooner?

This is a very sensitive issue. The Al-Sifa hospital was transformed into a symbol of resistance and the truth is that underneath the hospital there were tunnels, a command center and sites from which Hamas acted knowing that Israel would not easily bomb a hospital. So, they used it as a human shield. We have known for a long time that the hospital is a Hamas outpost and we did not touch it for humanitarian reasons. This time we gave them a warning, as well as help to evacuate. When we entered the hospital, we found tunnels with an administrative center, Kalashnikovs and ammunition, and we found traces of the abductees. And we know that Al-Sifa is not the only one that is operating as a command center.

Before the ceasefire, Israel conducted operations in the northern Gaza Strip and they have continued since the end of the ceasefire. Do you think Hamas probably moved south?

Yes. And that means we have to clear the whole area and kill or arrest all the Hamas terrorists. We have to move and fight all over the Gaza Strip. We have achieved our objectives in the north and now we are moving down to the south. The problem we face is the concentration of almost 2 million Palestinians who have left Gaza City and moved to the south. And there we have two big cities. In Khan Yunis alone we have almost half a million citizens. But we have to deal with these places as well and warn them to move toward the Egyptian border. On the other hand, Egyptian President [Abdel Fattah Al-] Sisi does not seem willing to accept them into their territories.

Hamas has ruled Gaza since 2006 and many residents of the region support the idea of ‘resistance.’ How can the Hamas ‘ideology’ be tackled?

Hamas is not just an organization, but an idea. Hamas takes care of the needs of a plain person, such as education and health, and that is why people are loyal. So, we have an organization that not only covers the religious part but has social characteristics. There are many supporters of Hamas and the citizens want it to exist so that they can meet the needs of their family. Therefore, we will not be able to kill the idea, but the terrorists. The idea will remain and I hope that it will not come back under another name.