JERUSALEM, Israel – The defensive war Israel is waging in Gaza has lasted 19 months, and its war strategies will be analyzed in the years to come. However, a change occurred in the last few weeks. Former Israel Defense Forces Spokesman Doron Spielman explains the military’s new strategy in Gaza that they hope will bring the hostages home.
To watch the interview, click on the video above. The text of the CBN News interview is below.
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CHRIS MITCHELL: Doron Spielman, great to be with you. You’re the international spokesman in reserves for the IDF. Tell us what’s happening, especially in Gaza right now. The IDF looks like it’s going to have a major push into Gaza.
DORON SPIELMAN: You know, I would say that the entire game has changed, Chris. Up until now, over the last 20 months, our goal has been to try to deter Hamas, try to destroy them, but to be extremely careful around the hostages, and what this really resulted in was striking in and pulling back, striking and pulling back.
And the problem is, Hamas understood this right away. The IDF would go into an area like Jabalia or Rafah, and we would think that we cleaned the area, and then as soon as we would pull out, they, via their underground tunnels, would pop back up again. It’s like one of those games you try to pop down one head and another head pops up. That game is not over.
What the IDF is now committed to doing, and this comes from the upper echelons, is to hold territory. What that means is, the IDF pushes into Rafah, where we have very intense fighting as I’m speaking to you right now, in Rafah, with our brigades and with Hamas brigades in Rafah, we will hold that territory. As we move into the middle of Gaza and Khan Yunis, we will hold that territory to force Hamas to retreat to a smaller and smaller area, where hopefully we can finish them.
What we know, of course, is what they know – and what we all know – is that they will use those hostages to the last minute. But our hope is by pushing them into an area they have no choice but to go to, that’s when we hopefully can bring these people home and finish with this.
CM: Yeah. What was the reasoning behind the change in strategy?
DS: The other one drew out over the course of 20 months. The IDF, if we had given the order just to finish this completely in October 2023, we probably could have done so in 4 or 5 months. But because we were being extremely careful, because of the pressures from certain United States administrations, the lack of certain arms and weapons, we were held back in terms of doing this. But today there’s there’s an exhaustion of seeing this go forward, where we know we have an enemy on our border that is still as committed to destroying us, as he was before, still firing rockets, still attacking our troops, still holding our hostages. There is no other option but to finish with this. And we can’t be doing this for years. It’s not good for Israel. It’s not good for the people of Gaza. And therefore the decision was made, this is a war, fight it like a war. No war has ever been won without holding territory. You cannot win a war by strike attacks, enemies know how to go underneath the ground. The name of the game is to hold the territory, force them into a specific area and finish with them.
CM: Yeah. The biggest issue right now in the Middle East is Iran – its nuclear program. It seems like Israel would appreciate the opportunity to go ahead and strike. But now there are negotiations going on. How is it different? How does that complicate things for Israel going forward, to try to destroy Iran’s nuclear program?
DS: Look, Iran is an issue that Israel is convinced, even if there are negotiations that take place today –and I say this as a private individual – even if there’s some type of agreement that comes to be, no one trusts Iran. The United States of America doesn’t trust Iran, and Israel doesn’t trust Iran, which means there’s no scenario where they are going to take apart their entire nuclear program and dislodge it. Let’s just say that they freeze where they are now.
Well, we know right now, based on foreign intelligence reports, that they are two weeks from having enough uranium in order to create a nuclear weapon. Therefore, even if they hold back for 2 or 3 years, we could find ourselves in a situation then where they’ll just create a weapon. The only answer for Iran is taking out their nuclear program.
Hopefully, the international community will get involved in this. This is not just Israel’s problem, this is a problem of the entire world. The regime of Iran is a problem for the people of Iran. If that regime was to change and there could be hope in Iran, it would bring us an entirely new Middle East, Chris, and that’s what we’re hoping is going to come.
CM: Just a few days ago, there was a Houthi missile that hit Ben-Gurion airport. The IDF responded very strong against the Houthis. How do you see that playing out?
DS: The Houthis have been hit considerably; the Sana’a airport is completely destroyed. Their docks and some of their naval ports are destroyed. But it is only probably going to happen with a continued strike. There’s no way the Houthis, they’ve even said now – even with the agreement that they made with the United States of America – Israel, they say, and Israeli shipping, are still targets, and Israel is still a target. So while they’re down, they’re not out. Again, they are attacking international shipping, this is an international issue. If they are attacking Israeli shipping in international waters, this is a cause for war, this is an international issue.
As soon as any ship is taken hostage from international law, they’re going against international law needs to be dealt with by the international community, and that’s what needs to happen here ultimately.
CM: Final question Duron. You’ve been on the front lines since October 7th. You’ve seen the kibbutzim on the on the border, you’ve seen the atrocities. Now, we are about a year and a half after that. Talk about what your feelings are after a year and a half, and what you’ve seen and experienced there on the front lines.
DS: I’m in awe of the people that have returned back to these kibbutzim. What I saw on the front lines on October 7th, on October 8th, I’ll never forget, it was like a holocaust in the modern day. And the people who went through it are rebuilding their lives and those communities with those burnt buildings, where their loved ones died right next to them.
It’s such a national commitment to the State of Israel. It’s such a belief in this country that we have nowhere else to go and that this is our biblical right, that it is a feeling of incredible strength, that that can happen. They didn’t move back to Tel Aviv. They’re rebuilding in their homes. This has unleashed elements (in) Israel, Chris, that I’m so proud to be here – and I think Israelis are proud to be here – and we stand together and we’re not going to allow our enemies to beat us.
The entire Middle East is entirely changed. Nasrallah, Yahya Sinwar, Mohammad Deif, they’re all gone. Whoever tries to destroy the people of Israel, we know from 3800 years of history, it doesn’t bode well for them, and it’s not going to bode well for them this time either.
CM: Doron Spielman, great to be with you.
DS: Thank you so much, Chris.
