A former spokesman for Israel’s military gave one of the bluntest assessments of the situation in Israel on Sunday, warning that it would take hours or longer to reclaim all the towns in southern Israel where the military was still battling Hamas militants.
“The picture and the situation in Israel is a dire one,” the former spokesman, Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, said on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Sunday.
Although Mr. Conricus is no longer an official spokesman, he has been actively updating Israelis about the war and the Israel Defense Forces account has been retweeting information from him. In his statements on Sunday he also claimed that the military had sent at least 100,000 reservists to the southern border and he appeared to suggest they were preparing for a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip.
While the military has sent tanks and reservists south, his claim about the size of the force could not be confirmed. When he was an official spokesman in 2021, Mr. Conricus released a statement, which turned out to be false, about the start of a ground invasion of Gaza. He later called it an honest mistake but acknowledged that the military had been seeking to deceive fighters.
On Sunday he said that “we have amassed around 100,000 reserve troops who are currently in Southern Israel who are preparing to execute the task that the Israeli government has designated the IDF to do.” He added that “our job is to make sure that at the end of this war, Hamas will no longer have any military capabilities to threaten Israeli civilians with.”
About 1,000 Hamas fighters crossed into southern Israel on Saturday shortly after the militant organization launched a series of surprise rocket attacks on Israeli cities. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared a state of war on Saturday as militants captured dozens of towns in southern Israel and attacked a music festival. They took at least 150 hostages, according to the Israeli authorities.
Mr. Netanyahu has told Israelis to prepare for a long war that will shift to “offensive” operations soon, a reference some have taken to mean that the military will send ground troops into Gaza.
Mr. Conricus also acknowledged the difficulties Israel faces as it moves forward. “Unfortunately, and this is the probably the most dominant factor that will shape the activities for the future, there is a very large amount of Israeli civilians and soldiers held inside Gaza,” he said.
Mr. Conricus stepped into the international spotlight in 2021 when as one of the military’s top spokesmen he announced the beginning of an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza that had not actually occurred. He then apologized, saying that he had misunderstood the situation on the ground.
He also acknowledged that the military had sought to deceive fighters in Gaza through a series of tactics that made it seem as if an invasion were indeed occurring. He retired from active service soon afterward, though he has stayed involved in the military’s information operation.
Source link: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/09/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-conricus-fighting.html