Israel Defense Forces spokesman Major Roni Kaplan says the country does not want war with Hamas, but to achieve peace in the region it is necessary to “murder the murderers.”
“We must dismantle the terrorist group Hamas. They are the ones who brought the curse to this entire region,” he says. Kaplan spoke to the column by telephone from Tel Aviv on Tuesday (17).
On Monday (16), Israel denied the existence of a temporary ceasefire with Hamas for the departure of Brazilians and citizens from other countries through the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, on the border with Egypt.
When asked how these civilians could be removed from the region, the spokesman replied that Hamas ruled the area. “You are responsible for the entire population.”
“Most of Hamas’s terrorist structures are located in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. But if we see a Hamas terrorist responsible for the massacre of Israeli civilians on October 7, including in the Rafah area, Israel will neutralize that terrorist. Because.” “This terrorist killed, murdered and raped Israelis,” he explains.
Kaplan also says that Israel has made every possible effort to minimize damage to civilians, citing as an example the order for the population to leave the northern Gaza Strip because it is a combat zone. “But Hamas is committing a double war crime: it indiscriminately attacks Israeli civilians and uses Gazans as human shields.”
The spokesman also says that despite their grief, Israeli soldiers remain motivated to win the conflict.
He also states that they have no doubt that Israel committed a “very big” failure in not foreseeing Hamas’ attack, but that the country is currently focused on the fight to restore the security of its citizens. “If these murderers defeat Israel, terrorism will defeat the free world.”
What conditions are the Israeli armed forces currently facing? How do those under your command report feeling about this war?
The Israel Defense Forces continues to respond to the brutal attacks of October 7 with the aim of dismantling Hamas and eliminating its administrative and military capabilities to ensure that this type of attack, which is the worst massacre in the history of the modern State of Israel was, will never happen again.
On the one hand, we mourn. This is a national tragedy. Soldiers have many friends who have just been murdered, kidnapped or injured.
On the other hand, we are motivated to overcome this situation, and our spirit of love for life will overcome Hamas’ spirit of death.
On Tuesday, Major Aharon Haliva, head of Israeli military intelligence, took the blame for failing to discover Hamas’ attack plan. How do you rate the letter he sent to him? Military?
Right now we’re focused on fighting. We are fighting to restore the security of our people, our citizenship, our country. We are not here to make assessments or speculations. The way Israeli soldiers evaluate themselves is by taking responsibility for their actions. This is part of our culture.
The Israeli authorities have not ruled out the possibility of opening an investigation to assess the security deficiencies that led to Hamas’ invasion.
I have no doubt at all that there has been a major failure in both defense and intelligence. [de Israel]. There is an important difference between what happened and what should have happened.
Since Israel is a constitutional state and a democracy, there will be an impartial and independent commission to conduct this type of investigation. And we will all learn lessons. But at the same time, we don’t focus on the past. We are focused on the present and the future and want to dismantle Hamas’ administrative and military infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.
Critics of a possible Israeli invasion of Gaza say it could trigger an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe. A land invasion is truly essential for Israel to defend its land Area?
I cannot go into details of our operation. For more than 87 hours, Israeli forces have been calling on civilians in northern Gaza to evacuate as it is a combat zone.
However, Hamas is making great efforts to prevent us from evacuating this region. Why? Because Israel uses its army to defend its civilians. Hamas uses civilians to defend its terrorist infrastructure, including very deep tunnels in the northern Gaza Strip.
Israel is doing this because Hamas has declared war.
There are women who were raped before they were murdered. And raped after the murder
We are doing everything we can to minimize civilian harm, and to do that we must enter by land. Because there is no way to minimize the damage to the civilian population by air.
We are sending the best of our people to join the Gaza Strip and dismantle Hamas because we cannot live alongside them because they are murderers and genocidal people.
The Israeli Defense Forces claim that they are not directly responsible for the situation of Brazilians trying to leave Gaza across the Egyptian border. What needs to be done to ensure that these citizens can safely leave and be repatriated to Gaza? Brazil?
That’s a good question for the Egyptian government and the Hamas spokesman. You would have to ask her. Israel is not a party.
Israel has not agreed to a ceasefire. Most of Hamas’s terrorist structures are located in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. But if we see a Hamas terrorist responsible for the massacre of Israeli civilians, including in the Rafah area, Israel will neutralize that terrorist because he killed, murdered and raped Israelis on October 7th.
I repeat: the Gaza Strip is ruled by a terrorist group called Hamas. And they are responsible for the entire population of the place.
Israel has one of the most advanced security and defense systems in the world. Would it not be possible to use intelligence methods instead of promoting actions that kill children, women and the elderly on the other side? Palestinian?
Yes, there are actually options. We sent out hundreds of thousands of leaflets, made thousands of phone calls, posted them on social media and also called on the radio to leave the northern Gaza Strip. You can see that many people, including Brazilians, have gone south. Israel is making enormous efforts to minimize damage to the civilian population in the Gaza Strip. But Hamas is committing a double war crime by indiscriminately attacking Israeli civilians and using Gazans as human shields.
The United Nations Office for Human Rights [OHCHR, na sigla em inglês] said on Tuesday (17) that Israel’s siege of the Gaza Strip and the order for Palestinians to move to the south of the territory could violate international law.
Hamas’ violent attack that deliberately targeted Israeli cities and the atrocities committed by Hamas and other terrorists, including murder, torture, kidnapping and many other crimes, are blatant violations of international law. These horrific attacks constitute the most serious crimes in international law and are defined as war crimes and crimes against humanity amounting to the crime of genocide.
Hamas has an absolute obligation to immediately release all those abducted in the Gaza Strip.
Is this siege necessary? Brazilians and Palestinians at the border report running out of food and water to drink.
It is important that you understand why this is happening. For example, did you know that Hamas stole 36,000 liters of fuel from a hospital in northern Gaza and that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) also said so? All of this fuel was enough to supply all Gaza residents with water for ten days through water desalination. But Hamas stole that for their war.
Israel is not required to provide resources to enemy territory in the middle of war, including electricity and water, but the country does.
Israel supplies Hamas with electricity and water, and Hamas paid Israel for it. But not with money. He paid with murders, rapes and massacres. It is the largest massacre and killing of Jews in 24 hours since the last day of the Holocaust, since the last day of World War II.
How do you view the possibility of a war involving other countries in the region? The leader of Iran, O ayatollah Ali Khameneicalled for a reaction against Israel.
Hamas and Iran hope that all of this will be drawn into a major war that will affect the entire Middle East. We are a culture that loves life, and it is a culture that does not value life, as it showed us on October 7th. So for them it’s another war. But we are people of peace.
The Republic of Lebanon and the citizens of Lebanon must ask themselves whether they want to risk the future of their country, the future of their civilians, the future of their government to help Hamas open another front against Israel in this war and to drag the entire Middle East into a regional war.
What do you see as the next steps? War?
I cannot share operations because they are secret. If these murderers defeat Israel, terrorism will defeat the free world. We’re not just here because of my family. We are at the forefront of the fight against terrorism in the Western world. If terrorism wins, God forbid what will happen to the world.
with BIANKA VIEIRA, KARINA MATIAS It is MANOELLA SMITH