Large-scale ground assault in Gaza ‘expected soon,’ former US ambassador says

William Roebuck, the former U.S. ambassador to Bahrain, said a large-scale ground assault in Gaza is “expected soon.”

With a 300,000-person mobilization, Israel’s military is sending a clear message as to what they plan to do, Roebuck said.

“I suspect what they’re going to do or try to do is decapitate the leadership, destroy Hamas command and control and their ability to operate as a paramilitary terrorist force,” Roebuck told CNBC on Wednesday.

Achieving that goal will be difficult, he said.

It’s not the first time Israel has gone into Gaza, and previous attempts will inform how Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) will respond this time, Roebuck said.

Roebuck said he thinks one of the most important things that will inform Israel’s counteroffensive is the hostages being held by Hamas.

“I think that the Israeli officials so far have indicated that they’re not going to be swayed by that at least that’s what I’ve seen in the media, but I think it’s going to be a factor,” he said. “In 2011 when one Israeli hostage was in Hamas hands in Gaza, the Israelis released 1,100 Palestinian detainees in order to get him back.”

The number of those kidnapped by Hamas is likely to exceed 100, and the Biden administration believes that Americans are among them. Roebuck said he thinks the Hamas will use the hostages as a “powerful bargaining chip.”

Since declaring war against Hamas on Saturday, the Israeli military has demolished several neighborhoods in numerous airstrikes and created an “iron wall” of tanks, helicopters and additional aircraft around Gaza.

Roebuck believes the IDF will “try to reassert its strategy of deterrence.”

In the past, he said, that has involved “retaliatory levels of response that are overwhelming” to “reassert their strategic dominance.”

“I think they’re going to try to do that this time with this attack on Gaza,” he said.