Tel Aviv:
The creator of the cult Israeli web series ‘Fauda’, Avi Issacharoff, weighed in on the air assault and ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza, saying that the ongoing operations are the repercussions of what the terror group did in southern Israel on October 7.
He claimed that the Israeli forces are succeeding in their military objectives in Gaza and are getting ever closer to the centre of Gaza City.
“What we see on the ground today in Gaza is the outcome of the October 7 Hamas attacks and we have to keep that in mind. Over the last week, the Israeli army started its ground operations (in Gaza). The last eight days are going, from what I hear, according to the plan. They (Israeli forces) are making good progress on the ground, whether it’s in the northern parts of Gaza like Behan and Belaya or in Gaza City, especially in the Zeitoun area,” Issacharoff told ANI.
“There is an ongoing movement forward and it seems that the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) is getting closer and closer to the downtown of Gaza City, which is the central place for Hamas’s regime,” he added.
The show-runner said the October 7 terror attacks were the biggest to have been perpetrated by Hamas on Israeli territory, as more civilians in his homeland were killed in one day than in Israel’s history since the Holocaust.
“Immediately after that (terror attacks), they (Hamas) went underground. They went under houses and neighbourhoods of Gaza City, hoping that Israel wouldn’t them as they were hiding behind human shields, behind Palestinian civilians. They also thought that we wouldn’t target them in the neighbourhoods where they are lying low, fearing the loss of many civilian lives,” Issacharoff told ANI.
“And by that (attack on civilian areas in Gaza), the whole world accuse Israel of creating war zones just like what we are seeing. So in a way, they predicted it, they wanted it, and they are succeeding. Israel is killing Palestinian civilians, whether we like it or not, and we don’t like it, of course. But Israel is also making some very impressive military progress and managing to get to many Hamas leaders,” he added.
On October 10, Israeli actor Lior Raz, who courted global fame playing Doron Kabilio, his character in ‘Fauda’ and had a previous stint defending his country’s frontlines as part of the IDF, joined ‘Brothers in Arms’, a group of volunteers working to negotiate a safe release of the hostages in Gaza.
From the southern Israeli town of Sderot, the actor shared a video on social media where he was seen with the president of the Israel Democracy Institute, Yohanan Plesner, and Avi Yissascharov.
In the video, they are seen capturing a rocket attack on Israel by Hamas.
Meanwhile, a powerful blast ripped through the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Saturday late at night, resulting in dozens of fatalities and numerous injuries, CNN reported, citing hospital officials.
Mohammad al-Hajj, the director of communications at the nearby Al-Aqsa Martyr’s Hospital in Deir Al-Balah, said the blast claimed the lives of 52 people.
