KUALA LUMPUR: The Israeli military operation in Gaza failed to achieve its objectives; instead, they might opt for peaceful negotiations with Hamas to avoid further substantial expenditures.
University Malaya Political Science researcher Dr Belal Alakhras said during the 40 days of the conflict, Israel has spent over RM45 billion, and the military objectives of the Zionist regime were not realised.
"For military operations, the Zionist regime spent approximately RM1.1 billion per day, and the illicit state faced intense pressure from its people and the international community.
"During this ceasefire period, about 150 prisoner exchanges involving Palestinian women and children with Israeli detainees took place.
"From this perspective, we can see that Israel failed to force Hamas and the Palestinian resistance to release Israeli prisoners unconditionally or through military strength," he told Harian Metro.
Belal, who is also a resident of Gaza stated that Israel couldn't achieve any comprehensive military results with over 2,000 regime soldiers feared to be killed or injured.
Despite the air strikes by the regime's military destroying a significant part of Gaza's infrastructure, from a ground military operation perspective, it did not achieve the actual objective of expanding the regime's military occupation in the Gaza Strip.
"Their action to destroy Gaza to provoke the anger of Gaza's people against Hamas also failed, as the people of Gaza remained resilient and offered full support to Hamas.
"The external pressure on the Zionist regime is increasing every day, involving threats of military intervention from other countries.
"Some countries also threatened to sever diplomatic relations with the regime if military operations continued," he said.
He said Israel has few options other than to continue peace talks with Hamas, and if that happens, it would result in a moral defeat for the regime.