"Either our hostages will return or we will expand the operation to
Rafah
."
This was stated by Israeli war cabinet minister
Benny
Gantz
, according to whom "there will not be a single day of ceasefire until our hostages have returned home. Even as the month of Ramadan approaches, the battle can to continue".
"We will act in dialogue with our partners, including Egypt. We will direct the population - he concluded - towards protected areas".
Hamas meanwhile praised the "guerrilla operation" in which two Israelis were killed and four others wounded in a gun attack at the
Masmyia
junction in southern Israel, calling it "a natural response to the war of extermination committed by the criminal occupation army against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip."
"We will continue - he added - in our struggle and resistance until the liberation of our land, of the holy places and the birth of a complete Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital".
Hezbollah's threat, 'we can hit Israel all the way to Eilat'
The
Islamic resistance in Lebanon
has enormous capabilities and can strike Israel from
Kiryat Shmona
, in the Upper Galilee, to
Eilat
, on the Red Sea.
Hezbollah
leader
Hasan Nasrallah
said this today
in a televised address.
Let's not use civilians as human shields, Nasrallah said, commenting on the fact that at least seven civilians were killed in the Israeli raid on Thursday morning in southern Lebanon.
Israel has repeatedly accused Hezbollah of hiding its weapons and fighters among civilians.
"We try as much as possible not to involve civilians in the fighting, it is a principle we have followed for more than twenty years," Nasrallah said.
Surrender leads to submission, to humiliation, to slavery, to contempt for our parents, for our children, for our honor.
We will not give up, added Nasrallah, according to whom Israel's goal is to establish a pure Jewish state, expelling all Palestinians not only from Gaza, but also from the West Bank and the 1948 territories.
"We respond to escalation with escalation", added Nasrallah, according to whom yesterday the salvo of Katiyscia and Falaq rockets fired on the Israeli barracks of Kiryat Shmona, in the Upper Galilee, is a first response to the Nabatiye massacre of civilians carried out by Israel yesterday morning.
Nasrallah then attacked the American administration, calling it "responsible for every drop of blood shed in the region", and accusing Israel of being an instrument of implementation.
“If right now the United States stopped arming and supporting Israel, (Israeli) aggression would immediately cease, whether Netanyahu likes it or not,” Nasrallah said.
"Those who insist on the objective of eliminating Hamas are America rather than Israel," added the Lebanese leader.
Tajani: 'Israel does not exceed the proportionality threshold'
"We want there to be a ceasefire" in the Gaza Strip and "we want the immediate release of all the hostages and that Israel does not exceed the threshold of proportionality, therefore also as in the attack on Rafah, as requested by the entire international community , it is absolutely necessary to prevent a massacre of the civilian population."
Foreign Minister
Antonio Tajani
said this on the sidelines of a Forza Italia event in Milan.
"On the other hand, Hamas is a terrorist organization, not only has it killed civilian victims in Israel, carrying out a real hunt for Jews, as if not worse than the Gestapo and the SS - added Tajani - but it must also decide not to attack Israel more. If Hamas continues to launch rockets against Israel, using the civilian population as a shield, it prevents any agreement. Therefore Israel has the right to defend itself: the objective is that of two peoples, two states."
"Israel must live in security, but we must give the Palestinian people hope precisely to prevent Hamas from becoming the dominus of the situation. We have great trust in and support the Palestinian National Authority, I reiterated this trust to Abu Mazen during the last meeting which I had with him", continued the minister, underlining that "the situation is complicated and we hope that tension can also be reduced in Lebanon, where unfortunately Hezbollah has increased the number of missiles being launched against Israel ".
"I will speak about all this both tonight and tomorrow on the occasion of the G7 which I will preside over in Munich. And I will also meet foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Qatar - he concluded - to try to make a contribution to the solution. The objective is a ceasefire and the release of the hostages".
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