BERLIN, October 20. /TASS/. Israel will not be able to destroy Hamas if it carries out a ground operation in the Gaza Strip, because the leaders of the Palestinian movement are stationed elsewhere, said Markus Kaim, an expert at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) and a consultant to the German government on foreign and security policy.

"The leaders of Hamas are not in Gaza. The movement's political leadership resides in Qatar," he said in an interview with the Stern magazine. Even if the Gaza Strip was wiped off the map, Hamas could not be "wiped out with just one military strike," the expert said, adding that it will be impossible to completely vanquish the ideology that the group "has been promoting for the past 30-40 years."

For this reason, if a ground operation is launched, the Israeli leadership "at some point will be forced to claim success [of the Gaza operation], regardless of how it looks," Kaim argues. The expert does not rule out that Israel could "simply claim to have defeated Hamas."

Earlier, Israeli Minister of Economy Nir Barkat, who sits on the country's National Security Council, said the Israeli army had been given the green light to enter the Gaza Strip as soon as the military is ready.

As US journalist Seymour Hersh pointed out, Israel intends to turn Gaza City into a modern-day Hiroshima, the only difference being that it will not use nuclear weapons. He explained that Israeli forces could use American guided bombs, which can penetrate 100-200 feet before exploding, to destroy the underground weapons production facilities of the radical Hamas movement.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 when militants from the radical Palestinian movement Hamas staged a surprise attack on Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip. Israel announced a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and has been delivering rocket attacks on Gaza as well as some districts in Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank.