‘We need to go back to targeted killings, and Hamas leaders need to go back to hiding underground and fearing for their lives,’ the public security ministry says. ‘Yahya Sinwar and others have been saying they’re willing to be killed near the border fence—let them.’
The targeted killing of Hamas leaders is part of the solution for the situation in the Gaza Strip, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan asserted on Tuesday morning in an interview with Ynet.
“It’s time for the heads of Hamas to pay a personal price for organizing these terror attacks,” Erdan said. “The heads of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar and others, have been talking about being willing to be killed near the border fence—let them.”
“We need to go back to targeted killings, and they need to go back to hiding underground and fearing for their lives, not organizing the masses to carry out terror attacks,” the minister added.
Erdan, a member of the Security Cabinet, said the political ranks “are not yet managing, on a tactical level, all of the military operations the IDF carries out,” which is why the proposal to resume assassinations of Hamas leaders hasn’t been discussed yet.
He stressed, however, that “I’m not representing anyone else’s position, these are my own views.”
After 59 Palestinians were killed on the Gaza border on Monday, Erdan said security forces are “preparing for a record day in the protests and clashes that Hamas is trying to create on the border.”
“From the start, Hamas’s plan has been to maximize the damage and terror attacks on Nakba Day,” the minister charged. “As we know, there’s a UN Security Council meeting convening today at the request of Kuwait. I believe Hamas will try to create a situation in which during the Security Council meeting, pictures of violence will be coming out of the border fence area. So our preparations are very extensive, including reinforcing IDF troops with other forces, including from the Public Security Ministry.”
“We’re facing a murderous terror organization,” Erdan stressed. “It was already said yesterday: Hamas wants as many casualties at the border as possible and the IDF and Israel want as less as possible. And this is the truth we need to explain around the world, with all the difficulties that entails.”
Erdan explained that Hamas “is in a crisis and wants to divert public attention in Gaza from its failure in managing their everyday lives. It can’t use the Egyptians to do that, as they closed the Rafah crossing. It also can’t use the Palestinian Authority to do that, as they stopped salaries and prevented the transfer of goods or energy or resources to the strip. So Hamas is doing this by focusing the incitement and rage against the State of Israel, it’s the easiest thing to do.”
As reported by Ynetnews