Commander: Gaza War Signifies Israel's Military Incompetence
News number: 8910280901 14:20 | 2011-01-18
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8910280901

TEHRAN (FNA)- A senior Iranian military commander on Tuesday stressed that
Israel's failure in achieving its goals through the war on Gaza in winter
2009 was an intelligence defeat that proved the Zionist regime's military
incompetence.

Iranian Armed Forces Deputy Chief of Staff for Cultural Affairs and Defense
Publicity Brigadier General Massoud Jazayeri said on the occasion of the
Palestinians' victorious resistance in the 22-day Israeli war on Gaza that
the Operation Cast Lead was aimed at toppling the legal and legitimate
Palestinian government of Hamas and removing the Islamic Resistance Movement
(Hamas) from the coastal strip.

Pointing to Israelis' failure to reach their goals, the commander noted,
"The miscalculations of the Zionist regime's security and military apparatus
about the results of the war on Gaza showed that Zionists lack the necessary
knowledge and supremacy for using their combat factors, and lack the
necessary power and wisdom to end the conflict with victory."

The commander also pointed to Israel's failure in its war on the Lebanese
Hezbollah during the 33-day summer war in 2006, and stated, "The experience
of the Gaza War and the 33-war in Lebanon showed that the Zionist regime and
Americans are able to advance their devilish and inhuman goals wherever they
are not faced with a serious foe, but they lose and face failure in any
place where they are faced with resistance."

Israel's 22-day war on Gaza which left over 1400 Palestinians dead was
observed as a failure for the Zionist regime and its allies

Israel opened the attack with a surprise air strike against the Gaza Strip
on December 27, 2008. Israeli forces attacked civilian targets, including
hospitals, mosques, schools as well as Hamas government buildings.

An Israeli ground invasion began on January 3. Infantry commanders were
given an unprecedented level of access to coordinate with air, naval,
artillery, intelligence, and combat engineering units during the second
phase of the operation called Operation Cast Lead. Various new technologies
and hardware were also introduced. On January 5, Zionist forces began
operating in the densely populated urban centers of Gaza.

The conflict resulted in between 1,166 and 1,417 Palestinian and 13 Israeli
deaths. The high number of civilian casualties convinced the world to accuse
Israel of committing a massacre.

In September 2009, a UN special mission, headed by Justice Richard
Goldstone, produced a report accusing Israeli forces of war crimes and
possible crimes against humanity, and recommended bringing those responsible
to justice.