Maj.  Gen (res.) Gershon HaCohen, the officer who oversaw Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005, stated in a recent interview with Kan News that if the disengagement hadn’t taken place, the October 7 massacre wouldn’t have happened.

Hacohen said that the evacuation of Gush Katif created the conditions that led to October 7th. One of the factors was the abandonment of the Philadelphi Corridor that led to a flood of rockets from Iran and Libya.

“We left the Philadelphi Corridor, which enabled the entry of proper weapons, long-range rockets,” he said. “It turned into a strategic threat because every time we wanted to enter Beit Hanoun for five minutes, they would aim rockets at Tel Aviv. It enabled them to build a proper army. It wasn’t terror cells anymore; it was battalions, companies, and brigades.”

“The second thing that happened is that leaving all the yishuvim of Gush Katif, which bisected the Gaza Strip, harmed the operational deployment within the Strip. From the moment the disengagement was created, Gaza became a binary space of the literal idea of ​​them there and us here.”

“The third thing is that after the disengagement, Hamas managed to take power and eliminate the grip of the Palestinian Authority. From that moment they created an army with companies, battalions, brigades, and a control and command system. We created a threat of a de facto army in Gaza, a de facto state that is located on the border of Nachal Oz, a five-minute drive away.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)