⁹Benjamen Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, has insisted on his resolution to annihilate the HAMAS fighters.
Given the reasons during a meeting with the US President, Joe Biden, Netanyahu on Sunday, 21 January 2024, said, “Gaza must be demilitarized, under Israel’s full security control. I will not compromise on full Israeli security control of all territory west of the Jordan River”.
“We are continuing the war on all fronts and in all sectors. We are not giving immunity to any terrorist: Not in Gaza, not in Lebanon, not in Syria and not anywhere. Whoever tries to harm us, we will harm him.
“Regarding our hostages, we have returned home – as of today – 110 of our hostages and we are obligated to returning all of them. This is one of the goals of the war and the military pressure is a necessary condition to achieving it.
“I am working on this around the clock. But let it be clear: I utterly reject the Hamas monsters’ capitulation terms.
“Hamas is demanding, in exchange for the release of our hostages, the end of the war, the withdrawal of our forces from Gaza, the release of the murders and rapists of the Nukhba and leaving Hamas in place.
“Were we to agree to this – our soldiers would have fallen in vain. Were we to agree to this – we would not be able to ensure the security of our citizens. We would be unable to safely restore the evacuees to their homes and the next October 7 would be only a question of time. I am not prepared to accept such a mortal blow to the security of Israel; therefore, we will not agree to this.
“The conditions being proposed by Hamas underscore a simple point – there is no substitute for victory. Only total victory will ensure the elimination of Hamas and the return of all our hostages.
“I told President Biden this in our conversation over the weekend. I greatly appreciate the US support for Israel and I also expressed this to the President. However, I will strongly insist on our vital interests. I emphasized to President Biden our determination to achieve all of the goals of the war, and to ensure that Gaza never again constitutes a threat to Israel.
“Therefore, I insist that after we achieve total victory, after we eliminate Hamas, there will be no entity in Gaza that finances terrorism, educates for terrorism or sends terrorists.
“Gaza must be demilitarized, under Israel’s full security control.
“I will not compromise on full Israeli security control of all territory west of the Jordan River.
“As Prime Minister of Israel, I have strongly upheld this position in the face of great international and domestic pressure.
“My insistence is what has prevented – over the years – the establishment of a Palestinian state that would have constituted an existential danger to Israel. As long as I am Prime Minister, I will continue to strongly insist on this. If someone has a different position, they should show leadership and candidly state their position to the citizens of Israel”.
RazorTimes gathered that, in agreement with The US National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), the IDF Spokesperson, RAdm. Daniel hagari on Oct 8, said, Hamas behaves like ISIS.
“Hamas is ISIS. They have the same methods beheading people, burning alive people, raping women, killing babies”.
RazorTimes reports that the Article 13 of Hamas charter reads that, “[Peace] initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement. Those conferences are no more than a means to appoint the infidels as arbitrators in the lands of Islam. There is no solution for the Palestinian problem except by Jihad. (Article 13). Hamas’ declared aim is the complete destruction of the State of Israel and the establishment of Palestinian state on its ruins”.
The Government of Israel had clarified in a paper published on the official site of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that its longer term in combating HAMAS is a mission to enable the Palestinian population to have power to govern themselves as sovereign nation.
“Israel seeks to work with global and regional partners to create a reality in which the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip has the power to govern itself but not the capacity to threaten Israel and its citizens.
“Israel does not seek to occupy Gaza or to permanently displace its civilian population, but to advance a future of peace and security for both Israelis and Palestinians alike”.
The paper continued that Israel was disheartened by HAMAS fired 5,000 rockets into the Israelis gathering that murdered more than 1,200 people, injured thousands while more than “240 infants, children, women and men were taken hostage.
“These actions – which Hamas openly vows to commit again – are something no country would tolerate, and every country would act against. Pursuant to its right and obligation to protect itself and its citizens, Israel’s immediate goal is to take the legitimate measures necessary to rescue all the hostages and to ensure that Gaza will never again serve as a launch pad for terrorism.
“And they want to deny Israelis, Palestinians, and a host of Arab states the ability to advance a future of further integration, prosperity, and coexistence across the region. We cannot allow them to succeed.
“Israel has been compelled to set as its goals both the release of hostages and the dismantling of Hamas’s military capabilities. To achieve this objective the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) is operating throughout Gaza, against many types of military objectives (rocket launching sites, weapons depots, anti-tank fire positions, sniper posts, command and control assets, militants themselves, underground military assets, and so on)”.
Reacting on the allegation of civilian casualties and genocide, the paper stated that, “Israel’s military operations in Gaza are solely directed at Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other armed groups. The IDF does not intentionally target civilians or seek to harm the civilian population. As described above, the present hostilities were forced upon Israel, and while the IDF is bound to mitigate civilian harm in accordance with the law of armed conflict, it is first and foremost Hamas that bears the responsibility for the widespread suffering it has caused by instigating the hostilities on October 7 and using civilians as human shields”.
Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated further that the IDF also has set aside a “dedicated unit whose duty is to be sending and ensuring warnings get across to every living being in Gaza. The units tagged, “the Civilian Harm Mitigation Unit’, consisting of senior IDF commanders, intelligence officers, Arabic speaking soldiers, legal advisors and other professionals) also constantly monitors in real time the implementation of these evacuation recommendations.
“In order to provide effective advance warning and mitigate civilian harm, the IDF has also encouraged civilians to temporarily evacuate from areas of intensive hostilities and from individual targets. The IDF has invested massive resources towards these efforts, including (to date) sending over 15 million text messages, conducting over 12 million pre-recorded phone calls, airdropping over 4.5 million leaflets, publishing messages on social media, radio and TV in Gaza, communicating with international organizations on the ground in Gaza, and conducting over 45,000 individual phone-calls urging people to temporarily leave areas of hostilities and individual targets. IDF messages often include detailed information as to when to evacuate (including from specific areas and individual targets), the safe routes to be used, and where aid may be obtained. Since October 12 the IDF has been urging civilians to temporarily evacuate northern Gaza in anticipation of intensive fighting and the IDF’s ground operations in that area. To facilitate these evacuations, the IDF has unilaterally established humanitarian corridors and local pauses in the fighting. For examples of these efforts,
“It is impossible to dismantle Hamas’s military capabilities without operating in southern Gaza – from where the overwhelming majority of rockets into Israel in recent weeks have been launched, from where many senior Hamas commanders are directing operations, where Hamas maintains numerous military assets, and where IDF intelligence indicates that hostages are being held.
“Israel’s efforts in this regard are in implementation of its legal obligations as well as an expression of its values and commitment to humanity. Nevertheless, it must be appreciated that the main threat to the civilians of Gaza is that they live under the rule of a genocidal terrorist organization that disdains both the law and human life. For as long as that rule remains both Israelis and Palestinians will be endangered”.
On the need for permanent ceasefire, the government of Israel explained that, “a ceasefire would allow Hamas to get away with murder – literally – and prepare to commit it again.
“While the IDF has unilaterally established humanitarian corridors, taken pauses for Palestinian civilians to evacuate, and has agreed to a temporary operational pause to allow for the release of hostages, Israel cannot implement a permanent ceasefire with an organization that still holds infants, children, women and men as hostages, continues attacking Israel by land, sea and air, and retains both the capacity and intent to perpetrate terrorist attacks against its citizens. Hamas has stated expressly that it will continue attacking until Israel is completely destroyed. Its genocidal Charter, the statements of its leaders, and its actions on the ground demonstrate an unequivocal resolve to continue to kill as many Israelis and Jews as possible.
“The barbaric massacre of October 7, and the continued firing of barrages of thousands of rockets into Israel since then, are the clearest proof that ceasefires with this terrorist organization are neither sustainable nor effective. Hamas has used every ceasefire in the past to rearm, to embed itself further in the civilian population, and to plan and execute new atrocities. Indeed, a ceasefire was essentially in place on October 6; Hamas broke that ceasefire, too.
“Temporary ceasefires during past hostilities have also systematically been broken by Hamas. In the 2014 Gaza Conflict, for example, Hamas used a temporary ceasefire to conduct an attack on IDF forces, killing soldiers and abducting the body of Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, which is still held by Hamas today (for more information, see Chapter III of the 2014 Gaza Conflict Report).
“In the current hostilities, Hamas violated the framework under which the IDF implemented an operational pause to allow for the release of hostages, by detonating explosives adjacent to IDF forces in northern Gaza (see here), and later violating the agreed terms as well as firing rockets into Israel.
“No State that shares a border with a genocidal terrorist organization would agree to a ceasefire under these conditions. No State would fail to protect its citizens in this situation. Israel’s citizens are no less deserving of protection.
“In the horrendous reality that Hamas has created, the most humanitarian action that Israel can take, for Israelis and Palestinians alike, is to defeat Hamas as quickly and decisively as possible.
“Israel’s operations are aimed against Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and are undertaken in order to neutralize the threat posed by them and secure the release of the hostages. Israel does not seek to harm the civilian population in Gaza.
“Israel’s operations are intended to prevent Hamas from ever committing again massacres like that of October 7, and by no means do they seek to punish the people of Gaza”, the paper stated.
