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Middle East conflict

Israel to continue Gaza operation until it eliminates Hamas, gets hostages back — minister

According to Eli Cohen, Israel "is working to get those who have been abducted back in any possible way"

© AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg

TEL AVIV, November 15. /TASS/. The Israeli military will continue its operation in the Gaza Strip until it eliminates the Palestinian radical movement Hamas and frees all hostages from the enclave, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said in an interview with Radio 103FM.

"There is no political clock. On our part, we will continue [the operation in the Gaza Strip] as long as it takes, weeks or months, until we achieve two goals - eliminate Hamas and get all our hostages back," Israel’s top diplomat said.

According to Cohen, the goal behind the actions by the Israeli military on the premises of Al-Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip is "to destroy Hamas terror tunnels and find hostages." "We entered the hospital after we received reconnaissance data, and Israel is acting in accordance with international law. Today, the IDF (the Israel Defense Forces - TASS) is in that area, as it controls it and will persevere with its operation across the entire Gaza Strip," he explained, adding that Israel "is working to get those who have been abducted back in any possible way."

Cohen said he had held meetings in Geneva on Tuesday with the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO). "I disclosed to the WHO chief all the information which was mentioned by the IDF spokesman two days ago. I showed that the money they have been transferring to Gaza ends up in Hamas’ hands and is being spent on military purposes, rather than on assistance to patients," the Israeli foreign minister said.

At a meeting with the ICRC, "a clear demand was made that the Red Cross visit those abducted in line with international law," Cohen continued. "We asked [the ICRC] to be more resolute, more assertive in order to act against Hamas' sponsors, and we were told that they would leave no stone unturned," he concluded.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 after militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion on Israeli territory, killing many Israeli kibbutz residents living near the Gaza border and abducting more than 200 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly. Hamas described its attack as a response to Israeli authorities’ aggressive actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. Israel declared a total siege of Gaza and started carrying out strikes on the Palestinian enclave, as well as on certain areas in Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank.

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