© EPA-EFE
For Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the destruction of Hamas and the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip are conditions for peace in the area. He wrote this on Tuesday in a newspaper article in The Wall Street Journal. He does not talk about a possible ceasefire.
“Hamas must be destroyed, the Gaza Strip must be demilitarized and Palestinian society must be deradicalized. These are the three conditions for peace between Israel and its Palestinian neighbors in the Gaza Strip,” the Israeli Prime Minister said.
According to Netanyahu, it is crucial to destroy Hamas “to prevent a repeat of the October 7 atrocities.” “Anything else guarantees more war and more bloodshed,” he writes.
According to Netanyahu, Israel continues to act “in accordance with international law” and does its best to “limit as much as possible” the number of civilian casualties among the Palestinian population. According to Hamas, 20,600 people have been killed in Gaza so far, including many civilians.
“Falsely blaming Israel for these victims will only encourage Hamas and other terrorist organizations around the world to use human shields. To make this cruel and cynical strategy ineffective, the international community must fully blame Hamas for these victims. It must recognize that Israel is waging the greater struggle of a civilized war against barbarism,” it added.
“Appreciating life”
Netanyahu then writes that a temporary security zone on the edge of the Gaza Strip and strict inspections at the border between Gaza and Egypt are necessary to ensure that there are no further attacks on Israel. For the foreseeable future, Israel will have to retain “ultimate responsibility for the security” of Gaza. “And to finally deradicalize the population, children must be taught to value life and not death, and the imams must stop preaching the murder of Jews,” the government leader concludes.