Israeli onslaught on Gaza ‘war of revenge’: Ex-security chief

The former head of Israel's Shin Bet security service has termed the ongoing military offensive on the Gaza Strip as a "war of revenge."

"We embarked on a war of revenge and this is absolutely justified in light of what we have been through," Carmi Gillon told Israeli Channel 12 on Thursday.

Israel has mounted a deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip following a Hamas attack on Oct. 7, killing at least 27,019 Palestinians and injuring 66,139, while nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

The Israeli offensive has left 85% of Gaza's population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Gillon, who resigned in 1995 after the assassination of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, opined that Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, "has been dealt a blow."

"(Hamas) will remain the governing body in the Strip as long as there is a vacuum and there is no one else to fill it," he said.

"It may be that there will be a cease-fire for five or six years and the ritual of the missiles will return. However, the story of what happened on Oct. 7, in my opinion, will not repeat itself."