Abu Obeida, spokesperson for Ezzedeen Al Qassam Brigades, said that that the Israeli occupation will pay a compulsory price during any future prisoner exchange deal.
Abu Obeida, in a brief speech published by the Al-Qassam Brigades on Tuesday evening, marking the fifth anniversary of the prisoner exchange deal “Devotion of the Free”, said that the world, our prisoners and our people when the right time comes to fully reveal the facts that the resistance is saving for the sake of the freedom of our prisoners.
“The occupation is spreading lies, misleading its public and trying to evade the payment for the price of a new deal,” the spokesperson said, adding that the time will never be in favor of the enemy.
Abu Obeida stressed that the “Devotion of the Free” will not be the only, and it will be renewed again in the present and the future.
On the other hand, according to Ynetnews newspaper, that the A military committee headed by Maj. Gen. Yossi Bachar charged with reviewing Operation Protective Edge has published some of its conclusions. Among other points, it has found that the IDF was not adequately prepared based on the amount of Hamas casualties relative to the amount of firepower used against them.
The committee determined that ground forces were unprepared to handle tunnels while maneuvering attacks. In fact, only a series of improvisations and changes made on the ground weeks before the war allowed for damage to be caused during fighting. Additionally, the committee found that it took more than a month to successfully strike and halt the tunnels’ progress, out of a total of 50 days of fighting.
The committee’s conclusions indicated that the threat of tunnels was known to forces, but that their method of neutralization during the war along with the amount of tunnels were unknown to commanders prior to the start of hostilities. The committee further found that methods of tunnel destruction were not conducted according to operational doctrine. In fact, a standardized plan did not exist and as such, battalion and company commanders had no precedent to build upon.
An organized order of battle against tunnels was only available for special forces units such as Sayeret Matkal, who regularly patrolled along the border and neutralized tunnels before the war.
The committee also found that Hamas succeeded in effectively commanding its forces throughout the course of the war despite hundreds of daily, accurate IDF attacks.
The subcommittee in charge of deciding whether to make it public currently has a five-member majority made up of coalition members, with MK Meirav Ben-Ari (Kulanu) probably turning out to be the deciding vote on whether to make the report public.
Several of the committee’s conclusions were published alongside a report by the State Comptroller on tunnels and the IDF’s preparedness. It should also be noted that the Knesset State Control Committee has the authority to prevent the release of the report to the public, even after the approval of Israeli Military Censor.
The conclusions of the Bachar-led committee contradict the heroic narrative the IDF attempts to promote. Those within the State Control Committee expressed apprehension over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu possibly exerting his political power over the subcommittee to prevent the report from going public.
f the committee would be stopped from going public with its conclusions, the decision could be overturned by petitioning the Israeli High Court of Justice.
