New top American general says Israeli goal of toppling Hamas ‘a pretty large order’The Times of Israel By Jacob Magid 11/10/2023
Charles Q. Brown warns prolonging Gaza operation will drive more civilians to terrorism, as US military officials push IDF to be ‘more calculating and precise’ in its strikesThe top US military official indicated Thursday that Israel will have a harder time eradicating Hamas the longer its military campaign in the Gaza Strip drags out and the more civilians that are killed in the process.
US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Charles Q. Brown, asked whether he is concerned that the rapidly climbing non-combatant death toll in Israel’s war against Hamas will lead Palestinian civilians to turn to terror, responded, “Yes, very much so.
“And I think that’s something we have to pay attention to,” Brown told reporters in his first comments on the war in Gaza since he took over as the top US military official last month.
“That’s why when we talk about time — the faster you can get to a point where you stop the hostilities, you have less strife for the civilian population that turns into someone who now wants to be the next member of Hamas,” he said.
A senior Israeli official retorted to The Times of Israel that if the Israel Defense Forces is forced to work faster, it has less time to carry out operations surgically and in a manner that limits civilian casualties.
Brown, in his comments, called Israel’s war aim of toppling Hamas “a pretty large order,” while claiming that the campaign was focused on targeting senior Hamas leadership, which it might succeed in doing more quickly.
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