CNN: Israel, Hamas Both Preparing for a Longer, Harsher Conflict than Past Conflicts

CNN: Israel, Hamas Both Preparing for a Longer, Harsher Conflict than Past Conflicts

On Tuesday’s “Outfront” on CNN, network senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman warned that both sides of a potential Israel-Hamas are gearing up for a harsher and more intense conflict than past conflicts.

Wedeman pointed to the hostile relationship between Hamas and the current government of Egypt that is preventing any sort of diplomatic resolution to the potential conflict.

“[T]he Israeli cabinet has authorized the call up of as many as 40,000 troops, but that’s not necessarily going to mean they’re going to call up that many,” Wedeman said. “For instance, if there’s going to be a ground incursion into Gaza, there’s a lot of preparation that needs to be made and that could take quite some time. At the moment the problem of course is that there’s no one trying to mediate an end to this crisis. Back in November 2012, the government of Mohamed Morsi of Egypt had good relations with Hamas and they were critical in working out some sort of cease-fire. However, now you have a government in Egypt, a president in Egypt, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who is very hostile to Hamas. Hamas of course, being a Palestinian offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, which President Sisi has been quite harsh in cracking down on.”

Wedeman went on to say it appears both sides are showing signs of a longer, drawn-out conflict.

“Israel is making obvious preparations for a longer, more intense conflict. And we’ve seen with Hamas as well, despite all these strikes, they’re still firing as many rockets today, in fact more, out of Gaza than they were yesterday. And we saw these operations where Hamas frogmen went up the coast and tried to storm an Israeli base. This would indicate that they are also preparing or are prepared and trained for a much harsher conflict or a confrontation with Israel than we’ve ever seen in the past.”

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor

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