Israel's coming offensive against Hamas will not only be decisive for its own security, but also be "a service to the world," and the truth about Hamas' atrocities should be made clear as Israel braces for scrutiny at the U.N., retired Air Force Brigadier Gen. Blaine Holt told Newsmax on Sunday.
"Barbarism is where this entire thing starts," Holt told Newsmax's "Wake Up America Weekend." "What's going to happen next is 60,000 fresh reservists from the IDF are going to go close this chapter called Hamas. It's going to be a service to the world, and then they're going to go out of Gaza and they're going to go get these leaders."
His comments followed the release of CCTV footage by Israel showing an instance from the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, in which Hamas terrorists murdered a father in front of his two young sons.
In the video, the father, Gill Asa, an Israeli firefighter, threw himself onto a grenade tossed into his home by terrorists, protecting the boys, ages 12 and 8.
The clip shows the older boy telling his younger brother, "It's not a prank," as a gunman helps himself to a drink from the family refrigerator before killing the father and taking the boys as hostages.
Israeli officials have said the release of the footage is intended to remind world leaders of Hamas' brutality ahead of next month's U.N. General Assembly.
Holt, though, said, "The world's information machine, led by these terror groups and magnified by some of the mainstream press, they're going to start countering this invasion immediately with their own information warfare. It's extremely important that this gets out now, as the scrutiny gets on every single thing that every single Israeli soldier does and gets under a microscopic lens."
Holt also addressed reports that Israel was behind the death this weekend of Ahmed al-Rahawi, who had led the Houthis in Yemen since 2024.
It's misleading to refer to al-Rahawi as a legitimate political leader, he pointed out.
"Relativism is an information warfare tool," he said. "That's what you see in play when they say it was the prime minister of Yemen. Actually, it was the Yemeni people themselves in their little hideouts that were jumping for joy the second they took that clown out. They'll produce another clown. But what we can see is that Israel is leading the way on taking down these proxies."
The broader danger, Holt warned, is a growing confrontation with Tehran.
"We're on a ramp for another military involvement with Iran, and we have to watch the escalation trail there," he said. "I think I see that coming in October."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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