The State of Israel experienced one of the most dramatic and exciting weekends in its history, and there is no home in Israel that has not undergone an emotional upheaval with the return of children, mothers and grandmothers to their families.
The "price" Israel pays by releasing prisoners is reasonable compared to other alternatives that are not available to us, particularly with regard to special operations to reach our citizens in Gaza. The return of all the abductees to their families is a supreme value, humane, Jewish and Israeli, that supersedes operative and other arguments at this time.
A sting fighter with his dog in the Gaza Strip, photo: IDF Spokesperson
Over the past few days, before the lull in the fighting went into effect, public concern was expressed about such a step: about the ability to organize and the attempts of Hamas and other armed militias in the Gaza Strip to attack IDF forces, the cessation of the continuity of ground operations, and especially Hamas' honey trap, in an attempt to achieve a complete cessation of IDF activity, to the point of stopping the war. Therefore, it is good that it was made clear that this was only a temporary stop.
There is no doubt that Hamas is a learning organization that will indeed strive to extend the ceasefires as much as possible in order to renew its capabilities, locations and weapons, and to try to maintain its relative advantage on the ground in areas that the IDF has already reached, especially those it plans to take over.
The road to dismantling Hamas is still long. However, there are also many advantages to a time-limited ceasefire, clearly intended for a specific purpose and not eroded by domestic or international pressures.
In such a ceasefire, it is possible to produce new, fresh and fresh intelligence about the activity of Hamas squads and headquarters, their location, condition and the weapons at their disposal. Such important information can be gleaned from all those Hamas terrorists, fighters and militants who have been captured and are currently being interrogated in Israel, and from Gazan civilians who have been arrested. It is also an opportunity to delve deeper into the information, insights and even analysis of means, documents, maps and computers that our forces have seized.
Detention of Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip (archive). Time to investigate the terrorists in depth, photo: uncredited
On the other hand, in a ceasefire, Hamas and Islamic Jihad commanders also make efforts to reorganize their forces, which allows Israeli intelligence, that of the IDF and that of the Shin Bet – whose cooperation in the war is impressive and exceptional – to reach sources of information that could lead to focus, accuracy and surprise when fighting resumes.
Another advantage is not only in the intelligence aspect: during the ceasefire, the IDF conducts immediate operational debriefings in order to avoid operational mistakes for which combatants were also harmed. This is an extremely important initial learning for the continuation of the fighting.
When you stop a huge and powerful war machine like the IDF; When the fighting spirit and motivation of the fighters are motivated by an understanding of the mission and its importance to Israel's security, we must make sure that by restarting we move from zero to a century quickly, sharply and decisively. Hamas may take advantage of this stage to harm us, both inside the Gaza Strip and with other surprises, including terrorist attacks in Judea and Samaria, which Hamas continues to push all the time.
The writer served as head of the Cyber Division and head of the Judea and Samaria region of the Shin Bet
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