‘’Our aim is the destruction of Hamas, this murderous terrorist organization, whose sole aim is the destruction of the State of Israel,’’ said Emmanuel Nahshon, Director General of the Israeli foreign ministry and former Israel’s ambassador to Belgium.
Interviewed Monday morning by Belgian public radio RTBF, he said that ‘’we will also do everything we can to get the Israeli hostages home. Negotiations with an organization like Hamas are out of the question. For the moment, the only option we are considering is a military one, a military offensive whose aim will be to bring the hostages back to Israel. ‘’
He rejected equivalence made by some media between Israeli and Palestinian victims. ‘’There’s no equivalence between what’s happening on the Israeli side and what’s happening on the Palestinian side. We were attacked without any provocation on Saturday morning by around 1,000 Hamas terrorists who penetrated Israeli territory and massacred some 700 Israelis, civilians, women, children, the elderly and young people celebrating near the border. Around 700 people were massacred, and between 100 and 150 people were taken hostage and are now in the Gaza Strip. It is an attack for no reason at all, we consider it a declaration of war, we are in a situation of war,.’’
During the attacks on Israel, Hamas terrorists stormed the Nova Festival in a rural farmland area near the Gaza border on October 7. Gunmen began firing at festival-goers and took multiple people hostage. Hundreds of attendees coulds be seen fleeing their cars, running across empty fields with gunshots echoing in the background. Hundreds have been left dead following the attack and many have been kidnapped.
Nahshon stressed that Israel is fighting now to make sure there are no more Hamas terrorists on Israeli territory and to bring this war to the Gaza Strip.
Asked if Israel wants to control the territory of Gaza with a ground operation, he said: ‘’We’re not ruling out any option. You’ll understand that I don’t want to share our military plans on the radio right now, but all options exist and are on the table. We’ll see what’s most useful to achieve our objective. Our objective goes beyond the tactical, it’s strategic. It’s to ensure that this kind of situation can never happen again.’’
Why were the Israeli authorities so surprised by the attack, asked the joiurnalist. ‘’ We’re all asking ourselves this question and it’s imperative that we find answers. But right now the priority is different. The priority is military and the Israeli army has the backing and support of the people of Israel and, of course, the government. Because now it’s a question of fighting Hamas, and when the fight is over, that’s when the time will come for reflection and analysis, which I believe will be very rigorous.’’
‘’What happened is comparable to September 11 in the United States and to what France experienced with the Bataclan, with this feeling of powerlessness, of the terrorists’ relentlessness against civilians, against people who had done nothing, who wanted to have fun. The images we see are heartbreaking, and I think they demonstrate the nature of Hamas, the Iranian-backed organization that was probably behind these attacks,’’ added Nahshon.