The IDF is failing against Hamas in Gaza, Maariv military correspondent Avi Ashkenazi said in a Thursday morning 103FM radio interview.
“What is happening in Gaza is a complete failure by the IDF and by Israel in shaping the security reality inside Gaza,” Ashkenazi said.
“Day after day, we see Hamas leading moves against the IDF. Most of the time it does not succeed, and there are no casualties, but yesterday we saw an incident that ended with an officer being wounded.”
Ashkenazi added that Hamas learned from Hezbollah in the Second Lebanon War and applied that methodology to Gaza.
"The moment Hamas shifted to guerrilla warfare and tries to dictate the agenda in the Strip, we are going back to the days of the IDF’s presence in the security zone in the 1990s, when Hezbollah carried out attacks, and the IDF responded. Now Hamas has learned this, and it did it for years in the Strip.”
“Israel should have created a different reality inside the Strip, similar to what is happening in Lebanon, where Israel dictates what happens. You identify a terrorist, you eliminate him."
Ashkenazi pointed to yesterday's killing of Ali Raziana as a failure by the IDF.
"Yesterday cemented our failure. After the attack in which an IDF officer was wounded, they went and eliminated three terrorists, including a terrorist who commanded the infiltration into Nahal Oz. For two and a half years, this person continued to live, and they waited for an opportunity to eliminate him.”
“Instead of the IDF initiating action when it knows these are terrorists with the blood of IDF soldiers on their hands, the IDF should have eliminated them long ago. We do not need to be dragged after Hamas. We need to act all the time. Our military approach is not right. We are being dragged into days of guerrilla warfare in which Hamas sets the pace and dictates the tone. That should not be the case.”
Reserve officer seriously wounded by terrorist in Gaza, Israel strikes back
As a reminder, a serious incident occurred in northern Gaza when a reserve officer was seriously wounded by terrorist fire at a force he was commanding. The officer received initial treatment in the field and was evacuated by helicopter to the hospital. Shortly afterward, Arab media reported Israeli strikes in several neighborhoods in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip.
An initial IDF investigation indicates that during an operational activity by forces of the Alexandroni Brigade in the area of the Yellow Line in northern Gaza, terrorists fired at an IDF force in Daraj al Tuffah. It is now being investigated whether this was sniper fire.
The troops returned fire, and a reserve officer was seriously wounded as a result of the shooting. He was treated on site by IDF medical teams and was evacuated to the hospital.
The IDF said that immediately after the shooting, tanks fired at the terrorists, and at the same time, airstrikes began in the area. “This is a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement,” the military said, adding that under IDF policy, it is expected to act and strike extensive Hamas targets following the serious incident.
Following the incident, the IDF and the Shin Bet (Israeli Security Agency) closed the account and struck a Nukhba company commander in Hamas who led the raid on Kibbutz Nir Oz during the murderous massacre on October 7. The chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, addressed the incident and the Israeli response, saying, “We are now exacting a price from Hamas, and we will continue to exact a price from it. That is our policy on this matter. We will not accept harm to our forces or violations of the agreement.”