Israeli President Isaac Herzog has expressed his “utter pain and sorrow for any innocent casualty on the Palestinian side” during the ongoing war in the Hamas controlled Gaza Strip.
“First and foremost, we alert people,” he said of the thousands of leaflets, calls, and text messages Israel had sent to all civilians in north Gaza alerting them of their plans for an offensive to root out Hamas.
“I mean, what’s the story here? The enemy, these terrorists, fought and tried to kill us and send missiles and terrorists from their homes,” he said. “So we have to go to these homes and we have to blow up all their infrastructure, tunnels, missiles, everything.”
Of the innocent bystanders, he said, “[W]e give them time to move out and we’ve opened humanitarian corridors and we have increased dramatically the humanitarian aid to those who are moving out to a safety zone. ”
President Herzog also pointed to the IDF’s attempts to open and maintain humanitarian corridors to allow civilians to escape the war zone, and provide humanitarian aid to those moving out to safety.
Israel Trying to Evacuate Civilians Out of Harm’s Way
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that overall, Israel’s efforts have reduced the “number of civilian casualties,” because people are heeding the call to leave the area and defying Hamas’ attempt to keep them there.“We have called to evacuate all the patients from that hospital, and, in fact, 100 or so have already been evacuated. I have called for field hospitals. The French president has sent a floating hospital ship. I have asked the Emirates to send a field hospital. They have. And other countries have done the same. I expect the U.N. to build it soon,” Mr. Netanyahu said.
“There’s no reason why we just can’t take the patients out of there, instead of letting Hamas use it as a command center for terrorism, for the rockets that they fire against Israel, for the terror tunnels that they use to kill Israeli civilians,” he added.
Prime Minister Netanyahu also pointed out that Hamas has “perpetrated the worst horrors on Jews since the Holocaust,” and ultimately, the only way the Allies were able to defeat the Nazis in WWII was through fierce fighting in cities across Europe, often in civilian neighborhoods.
“Many civilians were killed,” he said of the conflict in WWII. “So, who was the blame laid on? Did they say, well, the Nazis are right, the Allies are wrong, the Allies should stop fighting? Or did they say, look, use force as judiciously as you can, but don’t give the Nazis any refuge; defeat the Nazis, which is what we’re doing,” he said.
The IDF said in an update on Sunday that its efforts to deliver 200 liters of fuel for doctors to use to power essential operations at Al Shifa hospital had gone south.
Emotions Run High for Ceasefire in Gaza
Around the world, various world leaders, including those in the United States and France, have been calling for a pause or ceasefire in Gaza. Israel leaders have so far rejected the demand for any prolonged pause amid concerns it would only allow Hamas to regroup and strike again at a later date.Based out of the West Bank, which forms the bulk of Palestinian territories, the PLO—and by extension, the most prominent faction in the organization, Fatah—stands in direct opposition to rival group Hamas.
“Security and peace in our region will only be achieved by ending the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land, including East Jerusalem, based on the 1967 borders,” Mr. Abbas said. “We call for an international peace conference to provide specific timelines and international guarantees for implementation.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Herzog also revealed Qatar and Egypt are trying to mediate to ensure the humanitarian release of the hostages taken by Hamas during the Oct. 7 terrorist action. However, he could not confirm any further details beyond talks that have taken place behind the scenes, as nothing substantial has been put in place.
However, he has reiterated that Israel’s ultimate goal is to uproot the capability of Hamas, which he says, “matters to the entire well-being and safety of the world,” including those in Gaza.
“If we eradicate the capabilities of Hamas, we'll give hope to the Palestinians in Gaza too, to run their life decently, as we’ve expected in the accords we had with the Palestinians. We enabled the Palestinian Authority to take control of Gaza and they lost it,” Mr. Herzog said.
“They lost it to a brutal coup of Hamas in 2007. But the issue is, I kept on asking President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority on numerous occasion, ‘Would you go in if Israel takes Hamas out?’ And he said no. Now, I don’t know exactly where he is at and if they’re even capable of doing so but one thing is clear, we first and foremost have to give safety and security to Israel.”
In early 2006 and part of 2007, Hamas and Palestine’s other major political party, Fatah, fought a civil war in the Gaza Strip, which ultimately saw Hamas assume sole control over the region.
“They’re still not willing to fight Hamas. I say that regrettably but honestly. We have to be realistic about what we expect. We can’t fall back on formulas that failed. We have to succeed, to succeed to give Gaza a better future, not bring it to a failed past. Let’s create a different reality there,” he said.
