'Hamas is an existential threat for Israelis'
Leader of Israel’s Labor party says there is “no alternative but to fight it. We just had 1,500 of our people slaughtered, over 150 people taken hostage”.
US President Joe Biden has urged Israel to exercise caution, as its ground forces prepare for an offensive in Gaza.
Mr Biden told American broadcaster, CBS News, that he believed Hamas should be eliminated. But he warned that it would be a big mistake for Israel to occupy Gaza.
Merav Michaeli is the leader of Israel’s Labor party. She told Newsday: “For us it’s an existential threat…the goal needs to be to destroy the terror base…I would very much like to see Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere living in prosperity and in peace…but unfortunately Hamas made them into part of its terror base thus we have no alternative but to fight it…We just had 1,500 of our people slaughtered…we have over 150 people taken hostage including babies…Holocaust survivors with dementia…what is the alternative?”
(Picture: Shows an Israeli army soldier sitting in the hatch of a Puma armoured personnel carrier in a column with other vehicles near the Gaza border in southern Israel on October 14, 2023. Credit: Aris Messinis / AFP via Getty Images.)
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