New Delhi: Israel’s foreign minister Eli Cohen Monday termed Palestinian militant group Hamas, which launched a surprise aerial and ground attack on the nation, as an “evil not even created by the devil”, at an online press conference attended by global media.
Cohen acknowledged that the military operation against Hamas will take a “long time” to complete, and emphasised that Israel considered the group to be closely linked to Iran.
“It’s an evil that is not even created by the devil. I think that in the last decades, I don’t think we saw such sins, maybe only in ISIS (with) what they did… Hamas is the proxy of Iran. Hamas executed a historical massacre that the world will not forget,” Cohen said.
#WATCH | Israel's Foreign Minister Eli Cohen says, "…Israel is at war. We are in a war and we did not choose to start this war but we are facing a vicious terror organisation Hamas…" pic.twitter.com/UEussx2K5Y
— ANI (@ANI) October 9, 2023
During the early hours of Saturday, around 1,000 Hamas militants infiltrated Israeli territory from the Gaza strip, under the cover of artillery fire. The militants reportedly took over parts of southern Israeli towns in an operation codenamed ‘Al-Aqsa Flood’.
In response, Israel launched a large-scale counter-offensive — ‘Swords of Iron’ — with the Israeli air force targeting multiple locations linked to the Palestinian militant outfit, while its ground forces worked to secure its southern towns.
“Israel is at war. We are in a war and we did not choose to start this war, but we are facing a vicious terror organisation Hamas,” Cohen said at the press conference. He emphatically declared that Israel “will defeat them (Hamas) because we have no other choice”.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) posted on social media Tuesday that over 900 Israelis had been killed, 2,616 injured and more than 30 taken hostage since Saturday in its “War with Hamas”.
War with Hamas—67 hours in.
We are actively operating to put a stop to the horrors the Hamas terrorist organization is inflicting on Israel. pic.twitter.com/TA4TLorKb4
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 9, 2023
Also Read: What is Hamas, how it rose to power & its role in Israel-Palestine conflict
‘No dispute in Gaza’
Cohen also stated that there was no dispute over the land of Gaza.
“We gave the Palestinians Gaza till the last millimetre. There is no dispute with regards to the land,” he said, referring to the unilateral withdrawal of around 9,000 Jewish settlers in Gaza in 2005, ordered by then prime minister Ariel Sharon. Israeli troops also withdrew from Gaza in August 2005, 38 years after capturing it from Egypt in 1967.
Cohen further said that Israel gave Gazans “work, water and energy” despite not needing to do so, with the aim of being good neighbours. He alleged that “this attack is the result of those efforts”.
He said that billions of dollars that the international community had donated to Gaza “was used to build rocket factories and arm militants” rather than being invested in hospitals, schools and other infrastructure.
“I thank the international community for their solidarity… Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East and right now will have to fight for the western world,” Cohen added.
‘No negotiations this time’
After the foreign minister’s statement, the spokesperson of the Israeli foreign ministry, Lior Haiat, said there would be no talk of negotiation or mediation this time.
He said Israel was still working on the full list of civilian casualties, including foreign nationals.
“We are not negotiating with anyone this time. We are in a war and I think that this is not a time for negotiation and mediation. We are still trying to secure our border, to find out if there are any other Hamas terrorists on Israeli territory, and to find the people who are injured in the area,” Haiat said, adding that the IDF may carry out ground operations in the Gaza strip.
Haiat also blamed the European Union (EU) for funding textbooks that “carried anti-Semitic material”.
“The EU was financing textbooks of the Palestinian authorities that were full of anti-Semitism and incitement for violence and terrorism against Jews. Those textbooks are the root of the Palestinian terror against Israelis. Young people are being taught, educated, to hate Jews and to murder Jews,” he said.
IDF spokesperson Major Libby Weiss also spoke at the conference, updating the assembled media about the on-ground situation. She said that over 30 Israeli territories had been attacked by Hamas militants Saturday, and around 270 civilians attending a music festival in southern Israel had been killed.
In response to a question on proof of Iran’s involvement in the attacks, Weiss said that while Israel could not provide any such evidence at the moment, given the historical ties between Tehran and the militant group, Israel believed Iran as “naturally involved”.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
Also Read: Muslim countries on Hamas attack: Condemnation & calls for ‘restraint’, but some blame Israel