MADRID, December 27. /TASS/. The war in the Gaza Strip will end soon, it’s a matter of weeks, said Yossi Belin, who previously held ministerial posts in the Israeli government, including the position of justice minister in 1999-2001.

"It’s impossible to eradicate [the Palestinian radical movement] Hamas," Beilin told Spain’s La Vanguardia newspaper in an interview. "But we can’t sit together and come to an agreement. <…> They do not want to talk to us or accept our existence in the region. <…> I don’t see any other option," he continued.

According to the former Israeli politician, "the war cannot continue forever." "It’s a matter of weeks," Beilin said. "Small forces may continue, perhaps, to deal with the remnants of Hamas or whatever, but it will not be war. The war will end very soon," he concluded.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 after Gaza Strip-based Hamas militants 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.