Israel committed to achieving its goals in Gaza – Netanyahu – World

TEL AVIV, September 8. /TASS/. Israel is sparing no efforts to achieve the goal of its military operation in the Gaza Strip, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

“We (Israelis) are fully committed to achieving the goals of the war: eliminating Hamas, returning all our hostages, ensuring that Gaza never again poses a threat to Israel, and enabling the safe return of the residents of the north and south of Israel to their homes,” he told a regular government meeting.

He recalled that last week the German newspaper Bild “published an official Hamas document that revealed a plan of action: sow discord among us, use psychological warfare against the families of hostages, exert internal and external political pressure on the government of Israel, tear us apart from the inside and continue the war until further notice, until Israel is defeated.”

“The vast majority of Israeli citizens will not fall into the Hamas trap,” he stressed.

Tensions in the Middle East rose again on October 7 when militants from the radical Palestinian group Hamas, based in the Gaza Strip, carried out a surprise invasion of Israeli territory, killing scores of residents of Israeli kibbutzim living near the Gaza border and kidnapping more than 240 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly. Israel declared a complete blockade of the Gaza Strip and began bombing the enclave and areas in Lebanon and Syria, as well as a ground operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Clashes also occurred in the West Bank.