The ground operation in the Gaza Strip will be canceled if Hamas releases all hostages and surrenders unconditionally, said Jonathan Conricus, international spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces.
Source: Conricus in an interview with Australian radio ABC
Speaker’s direct speech: “If Hamas comes out of its hiding places behind Israeli civilians, as it is doing now, returns our hostages – all 212 of them – and surrenders unconditionally, then the war will end.
If they don’t do it, we’ll probably have to go in and do it.”
Details: Lt. Col. Conricus did not answer why the ground invasion was being delayed despite days of talk about it, instead saying that Israeli forces would “completely eliminate Hamas.”
He also added that people “must take sides… according to their own morals.”
“If you want to be on the side of the terrorists or on the side of Israel, that’s your choice,” the IDF spokesman said.
He also responded to questions regarding the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, noting that he does not believe Israel should be forced to provide food to an enemy that is “launching rockets at our citizens and trying to kill them.”
Background:
On October 21, IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi announced that the IDF would launch an operation to eliminate Hamas. On the evening of October 21, the first twenty trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered the Gaza Strip through the Rafah checkpoint on the border with Egypt. Embassies asked their citizens in Gaza to be ready to cross the border, but crowds of frustrated Palestinians with American, Canadian, German and British passports waited in vain for hours for at least the fifth time this week. The Israeli military said on the night of October 22 that it carried out a “preemptive strike” on an underground complex on the territory of the Al-Ansar mosque in Jenin in the West Bank. Later, the Israel Defense Forces said it continues to strike Hezbollah cells and Hamas targets in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.
2023-10-23 04:27:09
#IDF #war #Hamas
