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•We must ensure return of kidnapped hostages, degrade Hamas war capacity
Israeli Ambassador to Nigeria, Michael Freeman, has said there won’t be any ceasefire in his country’s war against Hamas in Gaza until Israel has ensured the return of the kidnapped hostages and degrade Hamas’ war capacity so that Hamas can never again perpetuate atrocities towards Israel.
In an interview with Aidoghie Paulinus, Freeman said: “There can be no ceasefire until these aims have been achieved.”
Amongst other issues, Freeman said Israel is doing everything possible to ensure that such murderous acts by Hamas is never repeated again since Hamas’ leaders are saying that if there is ceasefire, they would use it to re-arm and prepare further attacks.
The conflict between Israel and Hamas has been ongoing for some time now. Is there a ceasefire on the horizon soon?
On October 7th, Hamas terrorists broke through the border from Gaza, and entered Israeli towns and villages. There they slaughtered over 1200 innocent men, women and children. They tortured children in front of their parents, tortured parents in front of their children and brutalized, raped and abused anyone that they could find, before systematically murdering them. Whole families were burnt alive, 260 young people were sadistically butchered at a music festival – and throughout, Hamas terrorists filmed themselves doing all of this out of pride and happiness. Hamas committed crimes that were worse than anything ISIS ever did. Hamas also kidnapped 240 others into Gaza, including young babies, children and the elderly. And in addition, they have fired over 8000 rockets into Israeli towns. Israel has a legal and moral responsibility to ensure the return of the kidnapped hostages and to degrade the Hamas war capacity to ensure that they can never do this again.
There can be no ceasefire until these aims have been achieved. Just in the last week, Hamas leaders have proudly announced that they would use any ceasefire to prepare new attacks against Israel, and that given the chance, they would carry out the October 7th massacre over and over again until they were able to annihilate Israel and kill every Jew in the world. No country would accept genocidal terrorists, who by their own admission are preparing more attacks to remain on their borders.
Is Israel not worried that it is losing its age-long sympathy day by day as a result of the continuous airstrikes in Gaza?
The world saw the brutality and evil of the Hamas terror attack. They saw the rape, the murder, the torture, and the joy that Hamas took in carrying out their actions. Today, they hear Hamas declaring that they want to carry out similar attacks again and again and again.
Israel has a responsibility to its citizens, to the Palestinians being brutalised by Hamas and to all those who are fighting radical extreme terror to make sure this can never happen again – and I am sure that the world understands that.
Israel has said it will hearken to the call for a ceasefire only if Hamas releases Israelis that have been held hostage. How many have they released so far?
Israel released one hostage through a military operation, while Hamas released four further hostages.
Has Hamas reached out to Israel, either directly or indirectly for a truce?
Hamas are not interested in any form of truce. Hamas leaders have given interviews across the world where they boast about their actions, speak with pride about the fact that they don’t want a ceasefire, but if there is one, they would use it to re-arm and prepare further attacks. Hamas have made clear over and over again that they want to destroy Israel and murder every Jew in the world and that they won’t stop until they achieve that.
Israel will not let that happen and we will do what we need to in order to ensure that Hamas can never carry out another October 7th style massacre.
Even though Israel said it is at war with Hamas and not Palestine, a lot of Palestinians, particularly women and children have been caught in the crossfire. Why did Israel not focus on Hamas rather than allowing innocent people to perish?
Our war is with Hamas, and only with Hamas – it is not with the Palestinian people or anyone else. Unfortunately, in war, civilians are killed – there has never been a war in history without civilian deaths.
Israel has gone to extraordinary lengths to try and avoid civilian casualties, including creating a safe zone in the Southern Gaza Strip and providing safe humanitarian routes for Palestinians to use and go to the South of the Gaza Strip – over a million Gazans have used this route.
We made more that 20,000 telephone calls to individuals, warning them that the Israeli army will be acting in the area and that citizens should evacuate. Hamas has done everything that they can to increase Palestinian casualties, including preventing Palestinians from moving South – sometimes by force. They have placed command centres under hospitals, fired rockets from inside mosques, playgrounds, schools and houses. In addition, Hamas has built over 500 kilometres of underground tunnels in the Gaza strip for the exclusive use of Hamas terrorists. For comparison, the Paris Metro has under 300 kilometres of tunnels and the London Underground 400 kilometres of tunnels. There is an entire city underground – used only by the Hamas terrorists. They have built it at the expense of Palestinian civilians.
In discussing the conflict, the issue of a two-state solution readily comes to mind. What is the current position of Israel on this?
Hamas are completely opposed to any peace or any two-state solution. The best hopes for peace are for the removal of Hamas. By doing so, we will be able to provide a better future for both Palestinians and Israelis and hopefully begin the journey down the pathway to real peace.
Israel is reputed for its technological and security advancement. How did Hamas catch Israel napping?
This is a question that we will need to answer, and there will be a time to ask all the questions and get the answers – but that will be after the war and after we return our hostages.
Has Israel recovered from its losses?
Over 1200 of our citizens were brutally murdered – some were so badly burnt or abused that over one month after they were slaughtered, we still haven’t been able to identify their remains. Dozens of children have become orphans, whole families have been wiped out, women and girls brutally raped.
Two hundred and forty children, women, grandparents, young people, fathers and mothers are still being held hostage by Hamas. How do you recover from that?
How do you quantify the losses recorded by the State of Israel?
Every loss is an entire world in itself. It is impossible to quantify our losses in any meaningful way.
Let me tell you the story of Tamar and Yonatan and their twin daughters Shachar and Arbel, six, and son Omer, four. The family who lived at the Nir Oz kibbutz, near the southern Gaza Strip, fled to their safe room when the attacks began, but were murdered by Hamas militants. Tamar was a women’s rights activist and community leader who, that morning of 7th October, sent a message to her friends in Australia, it read: “Hi guys, we got into the shelter in our house, we’re all going okay”.
An hour later, they were all dead – murdered in their own house, their final message read, “They’re here. They’re burning us. We’re suffocating.” Now multiple this by over 1200. That is how you begin to quantify our losses.
