Upon Aravot Daily’s request to comment on the situation in Gaza, Israeli political scientist Avigdor Eskin said, “The most intense battles are taking place at the moment. The Israeli forces were removed from the area 17 years ago, and this is not the first military clash. However, this is the most intense warfare situation. More than 1,000 projectiles have been fired upon the civilian settlements in the southern portion of Israel, especially towards Ashkelon. Luckily, the Israeli defense system worked to make sure that 98 percent of the projectiles did not hit any targets, although there are more than 100 wounded and 2 killed on the Israeli side. And if those 1,000 projectiles hit their targets, we would have suffered many casualties.”
When asked what the reason for the clashes was, such as provocation or something else, the Israeli political scientist said, “It’s obvious that this is against Israel, especially since the Hamas movement is the official branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, and its main benefactor both financially and politically is Turkish President Erdogan. Erdogan was the one who pushed them to take drastic steps.”
The political scientist mentioned that elections were to take place in Gaza, but they did not. “Hamas tried to provoke mass protests against Israel against this background, but to no avail. Yes, there were riots in Jerusalem involving several hundred young people, but not tens of thousands as they had planned. When the plan failed, they began firing on Jerusalem, including firing rockets into the area where I lived. As a result, there is a lot of fighting in southern Israel, which is typical of intense battles.”
Avigdor Eskin added that it is not possible at the moment to evaluate whether Israel will be able to successfully strike the other side’s infrastructure to cause the other side to stop firing.
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We asked how the international community is regarding this conflict, in his opinion. In response to that question, Avigdor Eskin said, “Today, the international community has little interest in what takes place here, unlike in previous years. The Americans and the Russians have moved away from all of this, and Erdogan and Turkey are trying to get deeper into political processes. Israel must not allow this because any active Turkish involvement can bring about the future aggravation of the conflict. This is an important fact that must be considered.”
Gohar Hakobyan
