While Haim Regev welcomed the position of the representatives of European Union institutions “who stand by Israel”, he criticized statements which, in his view, “legitimize” Hamas or put Israeli hostages and Palestinian detainees on the same footing. “No moral comparison can be tolerated”, he insisted.

‘’As long as Hamas is in Gaza, we cannot talk about the day afte,” said Israel’s ambassador to the European Union and NATO, Haim Regev.

Speaking during a briefing for journalists organized by Europe Israel Press Association (EIPA) and the European Jewish Association (EJA) in Brussels, he hammered that ‘’the war will not stop and there will be no ”day after until Hamas has been destroyed.”

After a video conference during which Dr Efrat Bron-Harlev, CEO of he Schneider medical center, the largest children’s hospital in Israel, spoke about the health and psychological condition of the chidren released after more than 50 days in capitivity in Gaza, the ambassaor  delivered an analysis of the current situation.

“This is our war and we will see it through to the end,’’ he said. ‘’To put it plainly: the war will resume, and it won’t stop until Hamas has been annihilated, while the ceasefire is a “victory” for the Palestinian terrorist organization as well as a “danger for the whole region,,’’ he added.

”Unilateral peace initiatives, i.e. without consulting Israel make no sense” and are “doomed to failure”, said the ambassador. But he added that Israel “will not remain in Gaza” at the end of the conflict.

While he welcomed the position of the representatives of European Union institutions “who stand by Israel”, Haim Regev criticized statements which, in his view, “legitimize” Hamas or put Israeli hostages and Palestinian detainees on the same footing. “No moral comparison can be tolerated”, he insisted.

The ambassador mentioned in particuler a message from Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar on X (formerly Twitter). After the release of 8-yar-old Emily Hand, an, Israeli-Irish girl from kibbutz Be’eri, Varadkar had rejoiced that an “innocent child” who had been “lost and found”. These words were far too weak in the eyes of Regev, who backed up his remarks by broadcasting excerpts taken from interrogations of Hamas terrorists, in which they detail their motivations for the bloody attacks of October 7.

‘’This is ridiculous. Lost and found. She was kidnapped by Hamas. She was not lost and found. And this is an official statement by the Prime Minister of Ireland. Then they have some explanation. It’s black and white. This is the erosion that I talk about because some leaders, some politicians start to make this political calculation for any reason and nobody can accept that. And this is exactly how Hamas exploited this asymmetric war,’’ the ambassador said.

‘’Every other day we get more and more terrible stories of what happened,’’ he said.