Israeli Defense Forces veteran Aaron Cohen believes the delay of Israel's planned ground invasion of Gaza was likely related to its sophisticated hostage rescue operations and intelligence gathering, saying "you're about to see what Israel does best."
Israel has warned citizens of northern Gaza – the Palestinian territory governed by the terrorist group Hamas – to evacuate as the military continues its response to the Hamas attack that slaughtered Israeli civilians and took an estimated 150-200 hostages last week.
The delay of its operation was ostensibly weather-related, but Cohen said he believed it was tied directly to Israel's efforts to rescue as many hostages and preserve as many lives as possible.
"I believe the delay is directly connected to the hostage rescue portfolio on the macro level," he said on "FOX & Friends" Sunday.
"Israel is no junior varsity when it comes to this. They’re masters at the craft, so what they’re doing right now is taking 40 years of experience, and they're buying as much time as they can to be able to collect actionable intelligence. The reason why that is critical when it comes to hostages is because you have grandmothers, grandfathers, babies whose parents were murdered in front of them, being held up in the air by Hamas. And you’ve got civilians that are essentially placed throughout Gaza in multiple locations."
No stranger to high-risk hostage rescues, Israel's special forces are likely using the time to make any operation as precise as they can, he said.
"There has to be a high degree of selectivity. The entries have to be extremely aggressive when you’re puncturing into those structures, so we need to know where those hostages are, we need to know what rooms they’re in, we need to know where they’re standing in those rooms. We need to know obviously if they've been moved," he said.
He warned structures could be booby-trapped and any operations would be messy. The first priority in operations, he said, was to preserve life, unlike Hamas.
BIDEN: US ‘WORKIN’ LIKE HELL' TO FREE GAZA HOSTAGES
Asked by host Rachel Campos-Duffy about whether negotiations would be safer than a potentially dangerous rescue operation, Cohen bluntly responded "the time for negotiations is over" and the "NFL-quality athletes" whose full-time jobs are training for just these situations were ready to act.
"What we’re seeing right now is potentially the preeminent stages of a global jihad, and that’s my professional opinion," he said.
"We’ve got incitement that’s been happening globally. We’ve got [sympathizers] who if they were armed in every major city across Europe would likely be using those arms the same way Hamas did. Hamas unfortunately has masterfully branded the Hamas name into the Palestinian people, which is unfortunate."
Cohen said efforts by Hamas to block Palestinians from fleeing Gaza areas targeted by Israel was the "largest hostage siege" in the history of modern warfare.
"One million Palestinians, up to 400 Israelis being held for the purpose of being killed as needed," he said. "This is history you’re watching being made right now. So what we need is what Israel does best. They come together. They’re creative. They’ve got the intestinal fortitude. They’ve got the experience. And right now thousands of phone calls are being listened to, and you’re about to see what Israel does best. Rescue good people. So stand by."
Cohen said Israeli rescue forces could hit multiple holding areas if needed, if hostages indeed are held in dozens of different places.
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