The Israeli Army has the "challenge" that "the war against Hamas does not leave the Gaza Strip"

3,600 kilometers away from the epicenter of the war in the Middle East, the Israeli Embassy in Spain refuses to give details of the military operation that its Army is preparing to avenge the terrorist attack on October 7 against civilians, but they do outline with clarify what the “challenge” it faces is: “Trying to ensure that the war with Hamas does not leave the perimeter of the Gaza Strip.”

According to the head of this diplomatic legation in Madrid, Rodica Radian-Gordon, there is currently a “very great motivation” on the part of other nations in the area, with Iran at the forefront, to “try to open more borders with Israel.”. “And, of course, there is a motivation to show that we are not talking about a political struggle, but also a religious war (…), of a call to the entire Muslim world to fight against the Jews,” he argued in a telematic meeting with journalists this Wednesday.

The Israeli ambassador in Spain has pointed out that, “of course, Hamas is not the Palestinian people”, but has stressed that the demonstrations that are taking place in favor of their cause “on all sides, in the Arab countries, in Europe and in other places”, they generate “a lot of concern”. To which he added: “We understand that they are false calls, but they have a lot of power and incite, and we are going to enter a very dangerous wave (…). “This worries us a lot.”

Raidan-Gordon has also assured that “Israel does not have a plan for all Palestinians to leave the Strip”, which “is another lie” of those that, he maintains, are being spread about the conflict.. He has also argued that when the Government of Benjamin Netanyahu “asked the civilian population” to leave Gaza City “it indicated two safe routes and indicated exactly the times” because, he stressed, they consider that “the more civilian deaths [there are] ] is a catastrophe.”

“The intention is not for Gazans to go out to Sinai, the intention is to fight Hamas inside Gaza City and, as we are talking about a very dense urban area, the idea was for citizens who are not involved in this fight to go out. so as not to be killed. It is a very cruel dilemma, perhaps, between staying at home or fleeing, but the idea is that they survive, not die inside their homes.. And that is why the call was for them to leave,” argued the ambassador in Spain.

Furthermore, he has assured that Israel “has no intention of reoccupying the Strip” because “there is no interest in being present” in this territory after having put an end to almost four decades of colonization in 2005.. In this sense, he has shown his conviction that there is “a very broad consensus” both within society and in the Israeli geopolitical system that his country “does not have to reconquer the Gaza Strip.”

What Raidan-Gordon has avoided giving a concrete answer to is the question of whether he shares the position expressed by the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, that in order to resolve this historic conflict in the area, the recognition of the Palestinian State is necessary.. “It's too early to talk about the solution now. Maybe many things will change after this war. We are again in a before and after. And we don't know how it will be after,” he said.

Diplomatic conflict

What the Israeli Embassy has clearly done is to settle the diplomatic conflict with Spain after it released a statement on Monday to criticize the “shameful statements” of “members of the Government whom it accused of “aligning with terrorism.” from Hamas. “We have already turned the page. We have already said what we had to say,” the head of the diplomatic legation stated this Wednesday.

However, he has once again expressed his disagreement with the public statements of “some ministers”, in implicit allusion to those of the head of the Social Rights portfolio and general secretary of Podemos, Ione Belarra, describing the actions of the Israeli Army: “These types of statements then have a result that worries us a lot, because we are seeing more incidents of anti-Semitism. “In fact, it is not the first time that the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians has led to anti-Semitic demonstrations.”