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Hanegbi reiterated Israel’s place that the close to eight-month struggle within the Palestinian territory is “justified” and “essential” to protect nationwide safety after the assaults by Hamas militants on October 7, which killed about 1,200 folks and kidnapped 250 others.
The ensuing battle quantities to a battle with Iran, he stated, which helps Hamas amongst different Islamist teams across the Center East.
“Iran is a superpower that has despatched its proxies to encompass us in a kind of chokehold, with a purpose to exhaust us,” Hanegbi stated. “They know they aren’t going to beat Tel Aviv, however they wish to break us, they need us to lose our lifestyle. They need folks to cease transferring to Israel and wish others to depart the nation.”
His feedback will do little to boost the spirits of mediators from the likes of the US and Qatar, who would really like Israel and Hamas to hammer out a ceasefire deal. Talks have been deadlocked for months, with the 2 sides far aside of their respective calls for.
In the meantime, greater than 35,000 Palestinians have died for the reason that struggle started, in keeping with well being authorities in Hamas-run Gaza, whereas a lot of the enclave has been devastated by aerial and floor bombardments.
Israel says it has eradicated round 15,000 Hamas fighters in the course of the marketing campaign, however as many as 8,000 stay within the metropolis of Rafah. Israeli tanks entered the centre of the southern Gazan city this week, a part of a long-planned incursion.
Hamas’s most senior figures – together with its chief, Yahya Sinwar, and his navy chief, Mohammed Deif – are at giant and fighters have managed to regroup in elements of Gaza that the Israel Defence Forces cleared months in the past.
Whereas Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has by no means set a timeline for what he calls “complete victory”, and Hanegbi stated the military at all times acknowledged 2024 can be a yr of combating, many analysts imagine Hamas has been extra resilient than the Israeli military anticipated.
Hamas, designated a terrorist group by the US and European Union, operates in an unlimited tunnel community that Israeli forces have struggled to destroy and is ready to hearth rockets into Israel, albeit with far much less frequency than within the early days of the battle.
The struggle has infected the area and led to widespread criticism of Israel. The Worldwide Courtroom of Justice revealed a ruling final week that many international locations interpreted as ordering a halt to navy actions in Rafah.
And the chief prosecutor for the Worldwide Legal Courtroom is searching for arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, in addition to leaders of Hamas.
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