Retired Adm. James Stavridis said the risks of Israel’s decision to attack Hamas’ political leaders who were in Doha, Qatar, to discuss a U.S.-backed Gaza ceasefire proposal on Tuesday outweighed the potential benefits of the raid, during an interview with CNN on Wednesday.
Speaking to CNN’s John Berman, Stavridis explained why the operation was, in his words, “not worth it.”
“Tactically, this really diminishes the opportunity for life for the hostages” held by Hamas in Gaza, Stavridis said. “Secondly, operationally, I think this is going to only encourage Israel to continue ground operations in Gaza. That’s going to kill thousands of civilians, probably hundreds of Israeli troops as well.”
But Stavridis noted that, most important, the operation may have been a strategic misstep on the part of the Israelis.
“You’ve launched a strike into a sovereign nation, into a very close ally of the United States,” he said. “I’ve been to Doha, the capital, too many times to count because it’s our largest airbase in the region, Al-Udeid, very well hosted by the Qataris.”
“So you have managed to stress the relationship with the U.S., stress the relationship with the Europeans, and above all, it makes it impossible for the Arabs to go forward with the next phase of the Arab accords,” he added. “It’s just not a good trade-off for Israel.”
Hamas claimed Israel’s attack didn’t succeed in taking out its senior leaders, but noted that five of its lower-level members were killed in the strike. Qatar said one of the country’s security officials was also killed in Tuesday’s attack.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump told reporters he was “very unhappy” about Israel’s action, adding that he was not given advance noting of the plan.
“I was very unhappy about it, very unhappy about every aspect,” Trump said. “We got to get the hostages back. But I was very unhappy about the way that went down.”
