From Yoav Gallant, Israel’s Defense Minister:
We will get to Yahya Sinwar and eliminate him. If the residents of Gaza get there ahead of us, that will shorten the war…
"The Hamas leadership is responsible. We will get to that leadership. We will get to (Hamas Gaza chief) Yahya Sinwar and eliminate him. If the residents of Gaza get there ahead of us, that will shorten the war."
– Yoav Gallant pic.twitter.com/QcfD1P9Mox— Samuel Sabbah (@Samuel_Sabbah) November 4, 2023
Yes, Minister Gallant has extended an olive branch—of sorts—to Palestinians in a Saturday press conference, inviting them to help end recent hostilities by overthrowing their terrorist government.
The Times of Israel reported that Gallant said:
[T]he shortest pathway to peace [is] for residents of Gaza to help kill Hamas leaders.
Again, Gallant said, in no uncertain terms:
We will get to [Hamas Gaza chief]
Yahya Sinwar and eliminate him.
If the residents of Gaza get there
ahead of us, that will shorten the war.
Further:
[T]he only way for the war to end altogether is to give Israel absolute freedom to deal with security threats in Gaza.
Gallant made the statement at the end of a two-day visit with reserve soldiers near the front lines, suggesting that they are prepared to “fight until victory.”
Gallant reportedly told soldiers:
Israel must complete the mission.
He said the Israeli Defense Forces were “determined” to wipe out Hamas in the wake of the Oct. 7 massacre that killed some 1,300 innocent civilians—many of them raped and tortured.
Hamas terrorists also took between 200 and 250
hostages back to Gaza and have yet to release them.
The surprise attack effectively broke a two-year ceasefire between the oft-warring regions and convinced Israel’s government that it could no longer allow its neighboring territory to be ruled by an organization willing and able to plot such atrocities in secret while publicly pretending to pursue peaceful coexistence.
The IDF is currently undertaking an all-out assault on Gaza City from both north and south.
Hamas claims that the assault has cost the lives of more than 10,000 Palestinians in Gaza, although it does not distinguish between enemy combatants and civilians being used as human shields.
Gallant stated:
At the end of the war, there will be no more Hamas in Gaza.
There will be no more security threat from Gaza on Israel, and Israel will have absolute freedom to take whatever security action it seeks against anyone who raises his head in Gaza [to threaten Israel].
Gallant was echoing statements made previously by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who promised soon after Hamas’s initial attack:
[To] change the Middle East,
[noting that] this is only the beginning.
In an apparent commitment to all-out warfare, the prime minister added that:
[W]hat Israel does to its enemies
in the coming days will echo for generations.
Final thoughts: I am not inclined to believe the Arabs who call themselves Palestinians will accept defeat and settle into Nation building.
Even if every one of them who has so much as spoken an unkind word toward the Jews is removed from the land of the living, there will still be a small child with hate in his heart who grows up to lead the next attack upon the Jews.
And these hard feelings may very well be cultivated by people like those living amongst us in America. Example: Rashida Tlaib.
I hope and pray I am wrong.
