Former US Nato Commander Warns of ‘Massive Humanitarian Disaster’ in Gaza

Retired Admiral and former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO James Stavridis warned in a radio interview Sunday that a "massive humanitarian disaster is unfolding before our eyes" in Gaza.

Both Egypt and Jordan are going to have to "step up and take refugees. And Israel is going to have to find a way to balance offensive operations with allowing humanitarian aid to flow in," he said in a morning interview on Cats Roundtable WABC 770.

Stavriris said that Israel is "effectively counter-firing against Hamas" in the wake of its deadly attack on Israel Oct. 7.

"That’s all good news. But the bad news is there’s a massive humanitarian disaster," Stavidris told host John Catsimatidis.

Israel is "probably going to have to get [to] a point of some kind of temporary ceasefire in operations to allow" humanitarian aid, he added.

That "might give Hamas a little bit of breathing space," the admiral conceded.

But he added: "I think that's OK, because Israel will never forgive and never forget. They’ll go right back to it after they accommodate the refugees.”

He criticized Israel's intelligence "complacency" for missing preparations for the Hamas attack.

"They have lived alongside Hamas for 15-plus years and just didn’t take it as seriously as it needed to be," said Stavridis. "Related to that, internal divisions in Israel caused a lot of distractions," he added, noting the disruption in having four governments in five years.

In a surprising twist Stavridis said: "You have to give Hamas credit ... They came up with new innovative technologies: hang-glider attacks … using couriers and land lines instead of cell phones."

The dangerous trip wire is Hezbollah, Stavridis warned.

Hezbollah is a "creature of Iran," he said. "If Iran makes the mistake of unleashing Hezbollah … the US would get pulled into assisting Israel in knocking down that threat to the north.”