AhlulBayt News Agency: Far-right Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has accused Hamas of “playing games” regarding the remains of Israeli captives and called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to order a full-scale war on Gaza, insisting that the resistance group must be annihilated.
In a social media post on Tuesday, Ben-Gvir stated, “The fact that Hamas continues to play games and does not immediately transfer all the bodies of our fallen is itself proof that the organization still exists.”
He added, “We no longer need to ‘extract a price from Hamas’ for its violations. We must eliminate its very existence and destroy it completely, once and for all, in line with the central goal of the ‘war of revival’ in Gaza,” urging Netanyahu to act without hesitation.
Israel’s finance minister Bezalel Smotrich echoed the call in a written appeal to Netanyahu, demanding “forceful responses” and the “destruction of Hamas and the removal of the threat from Gaza.”
Netanyahu responded by saying Israel would act after Hamas handed over human remains that, according to him, did not belong to the missing captives.
He claimed that the remains delivered overnight were of a captive whose body had already been recovered earlier by Israeli forces during their operations in Gaza.
Israeli officials have since announced that they will not proceed with the next phases of the US-brokered plan until the remaining 13 bodies are returned to the occupied territories.
Hamas, meanwhile, stated that it is complying with the ceasefire and doing its best to locate the remains of the hostages, but its efforts are hindered by the lack of proper equipment for identification.
The Israeli regime had previously blocked the entry of equipment needed to recover the captives’ bodies, while simultaneously accusing Hamas of delays in delivering them.
For the past 48 hours, Hamas has been working with the Red Cross and Egyptian teams to locate the remains of Israeli captives in areas still under Israeli military occupation.
So far, the resistance movement has returned the remains of 15 captives, while 13 bodies remain in Gaza.
Hamas explained that it does not know the exact location of all the bodies, as contact was lost with several units holding captives who were reportedly killed during Israeli bombardments.
/129
Your Comment