At a time of high tension regarding the possible scenario of an open war between Iran and Israel, the Spanish representative of the Israeli army, Roni Kaplan (Montevideo, 1982), affirms that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are preparing for all the stages. Regarding the actions of Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip, he highlights that “it is often forgotten that in a war there are tragedies and mistakes.”
Will Israel counterattack Iran even though Washington does not want a war with Tehran?
We are prepared for all defensive and offensive scenarios. There is no doubt that we will cause harm to anyone who acts against us or plans to attack us. At the moment, our stance is essentially defensive. We are seeing what else Iran can do and we are prepared to act according to the Government’s orders.
What is the next step in the Gaza war?
We have dismantled 19 of the 24 Hamas battalions in the Gaza Strip. We are missing five. Four of them are in Rafah, intact, and the other, in the center. To prevent the Hamas army from rebuilding itself, we have no choice but to try to dismantle the Rafah battalions. First we will establish temporary humanitarian islands, to which the Palestinians will evacuate to leave the combat zone, just as we have done before. We will continue to fight committed to international humanitarian law, distinguishing between civilians and terrorists, and maintaining the proportionality established by international law.
Regarding proportionality, 976 magazine states that the IDF was authorized to kill up to 20 civilians for each low-ranking Hamas fighter and up to 100 for a high command at the start of the war. How do you explain it?
There is an industry of lies around the use of Israeli forces that I am seeing here in Barcelona, ??in the media, in the academic sector and in politics. According to John Spencer, a professor at the University of West Point specialized in urban warfare, for every terrorist that Israel neutralizes, 1.5 civilians die in Gaza, a lower average than that of wars in the 20th and 21st centuries, which is 8 or 9. civilians per combatant killed.
And do you recognize it?
Yes, it’s mostly true. This proportion takes as a reference the figures given by Hamas, of 32,000 dead, and we are talking about 13,000 dead terrorists. The difference between 13,000 and 32,000 is 19,000, hence the proportion of 1.5. Although obviously there should not be a single civilian death, that is our intention, wars are like that, they are hard, and 1.5 die and died. But in a much smaller proportion than in all the rest of the wars. There is suffering on the part of the civilian population in Gaza and we, like Europe, are concerned about this suffering.
With more than 76,000 injured, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, don’t you think that proportionality is no longer met?
We try to do everything in our power to mitigate damage to civilians, we carefully select the type of ammunition we use to reduce collateral damage. One way is by asking them to evacuate conflict zones. Many of the wounded, unfortunately, ignored the 42 million warnings that we gave by SMS, phone calls, leaflets thrown into the air and other means, in this war.
There are reports that they use one-ton bombs and unguided bombs, known as “dumb bombs.” Is that so?
It’s easy to label the ammunition we use as “dumb bombs,” but it’s misleading. We use a wide range of munitions, depending on the target: many of them are precision-guided. Our pilots fire other unguided munitions very accurately.
You call the attack on World Central Kitchen a “mistake,” but the UN speaks of almost 200 dead aid workers. Are there sufficient control mechanisms before attacking?
A very large number of attacks are aborted, precisely because of distinguishing between civilians and terrorists. What happened on April 1 was a tragic mistake. We have no intention of causing any harm to humanitarian aid collaborators. Having said this, UNRWA (the UN agency for Palestinian Refugees) has hundreds of terrorists in its ranks. More than 450, as we have demonstrated. UNRWA members invaded Israel and killed people on October 7. UNRWA is part of the problem, it is not part of the solution, and in the medium and long term it must be replaced. Spain and the Spanish subsidiary of UNRWA, through Spanish tax payers, ultimately give money to UNRWA in Gaza and from there to Hamas.
The UN says the reports are inconclusive. Spain, Norway, Belgium and Ireland, among other countries, continue to send funds to UNRWA.
How much can one expect from the United Nations? I tell him cynically that the UN is made up of Iran, Syria or North Korea, as if they care more about human rights than Israel.
The Israeli army killed three Israeli hostages. Is there a certain lack of control of the troops on the ground?
We are a professional army and when we make a mistake we investigate it transparently. Many times it is not understood that it is a war and in war there are tragedies and mistakes. It is a war between the free world, of which Israel is a part, and the jihad, of which Hamas is a part. They are trying to attack us from seven fronts and we have no choice but to defeat terrorism. We hope to make zero mistakes. Let not a single more civilian die in Gaza. They are not our enemies, Hamas is.
Regarding the temporary humanitarian islands in Rafah. What security guarantees do civilians have if the army has attacked areas that it had designated as safe?
When we establish a safe zone Hamas knows that we are not going to attack and starts launching rockets from there. It is a group that has blended in with the civilian population and does not pay attention to any type of infrastructure from which to attack: mosques, schools, daycare centers, hospitals…
The UN and humanitarian organizations speak of restrictions on aid access to Gaza. What is Israel doing to deliver aid?
We have allowed the entry of more than 22,500 trucks, with more than 410,000 tons of humanitarian aid. And the entry of between 450 and 500 trucks a day will be normalized.
Will help reach the north?
The distribution of aid in Gaza was never something that was the responsibility of Israel, which does not currently control the entire territory. UNRWA currently has pallets with a lot of food that it is not even managing to distribute.
The UN says that the Israeli army does not guarantee the security of the delivery.
Hamas steals aid. He has rushed towards the convoys. We are trying to flood the strip with humanitarian aid. We are working with the US to establish a maritime corridor from Cyprus. We work with France, Jordan, the UAE and the US to deliver aid from the air. We have built a new passage in the north to allow more aid to go directly to civilians.
The Hamas leadership remains intact except for the death of Maruan Issa, its number three. Do they hope to take out the remaining leaders in the Rafah operation?
Neutralizing the other three elements of the Hamas leadership, which are Yahya Sinuar, his brother, Muhammad Sinuar, and Muhammad Deif, is a responsibility that weighs on our shoulders. And we do everything in our power to fulfill it.
They talk about the “total destruction” of Hamas, but Emmanuel Macron doubted whether it was possible. How do you plan to achieve it?
Militarily, you cannot destroy an ideology. Yes, we can dismantle the organizational units within which Hamas fights: its chain of command, its battalion commanders… Make sure it does not establish a regime again.
After the war in Gaza, will the fight against Hizbullah continue?
We have more than 60,000 Israelis evacuated on the Lebanese border. People have to go back to their homes. We want Hizbullah to go north of the Litani River, to respect United Nations resolution 1701, according to which it cannot have weapons south of this river.
