Netanyahu slams army spokesman saying Hamas will exist in 5 years

 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed army spokesman Daniel Hagari for saying that Hamas will continue to exist in the Gaza Strip for the next five years, local media reported yesterday.

Earlier in the day, Hagari said, in an interview with the American ABC network, that “Israel is planning a long war against Hamas,” adding that he believes Hamas will remain in Gaza for the next five years.

“Will you and me be talking five years from now about Hamas as a terror organisation in Gaza?” Hagari asked the host, then continued: “The answer is yes.”

According to reports by Israel’s Channel 14, Netanyahu attacked the army spokesman in closed talks, saying: “There are also members of Hamas in the West Bank, but there is no Hamas rule. There are neo-Nazis in Germany, but there is no Nazi rule.”

Netanyahu claimed that “Israel will eliminate Hamas’s rule and will not allow it to control the Gaza Strip again and threaten Israel from there.”

Since the beginning of the devastating Israeli war on the Gaza Strip on 7 October, the Israeli prime minister has set “the destruction of Hamas” as one of the war’s goals, although many Israeli military analysts and observers doubt the possibility of achieving this.

Hagari has previously caused uproar when, on 19 June, he told Israel’s Channel 13 that “Hamas is an idea, Hamas is a party. It’s rooted in the hearts of the people — anyone who thinks we can eliminate Hamas is wrong.”

“To say that we are going to make Hamas disappear is to throw sand in people’s eyes,” he continued.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240709-netanyahu-slams-army-spokesman-saying-hamas-will-exist-in-5-years/