Israeli Chief of Staff Dan Halutz said Monday that he is currently opposed to a ground force operation in the Gaza Strip.
Halutz said he is not pushing for such an operation since it would not necessarily end the firing of Qassam rockets at targets within Israel.
‘We were in Gaza for 38 years. In all the years of fighting in Gaza, we never managed to cut the number of Qassams to zero. There is one school of thought in the defense establishment that argues that we need to reenter Gaza to curtail the Qassams. I oppose this. The army is not the main advocate of this approach.
Others within the defense establishment are touting it. They believe that this is the only solution to the Qassams, and they fail to understand the price that this would entail.’
Halutz also said that he does not expect a confrontation with Hamas in the near future