Netanyahu Says Israel Controls 60 Percent of Gaza, Has Eliminated Nearly Every October 7 ‘Architect’

Israel now controls 60 percent of Gaza and the IDF has almost killed every “architect” behind the October 7 massacre, Prime Minister Netanyahu said. Speaking at an event in Israel’s parliament on Sunday, Knesset, Mr. Netanyahu said: “In Gaza now, we are no longer holding 50 percent, but already 60 percent. We have Hamas in our grip. We know exactly what our mission is, and our mission is one: To ensure that Gaza will never again pose a threat to Israel.”Israel was handed control with 53 percent of the Gaza Strip in the ceasefire agreement with Hamas in October last year, with a “Yellow Line” separating the two areas in the enclave. The prime minister also commented on the killing of Hamas’ leader in Gaza, Iz al-Din al-Haddad, over the weekend, calling him a “despicable terrorist (who) was responsible for the murder, injury, and kidnapping of thousands of Israeli citizens and IDF soldiers. He used hostages as human shields, and he is no longer with us.”Mr. Netanyahu said he promised from the outset of the war with Hamas that “every single architect of the massacre and the hostage-taking would be eliminated down to the last one, and we are very close to completing this mission as well.”Israel killed yet another Hamas member in Gaza on Sunday who was “advancing plans to carry out sniper attacks against IDF troops operating in the southern Gaza Strip in the immediate timeframe.”“The terrorist posed an immediate threat to IDF troops and was eliminated in a precise strike. Prior to the strike, steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harm to civilians, including the use of precise munitions and aerial surveillance,” the IDF said. Israel and Hamas are stuck in Phase I of the ceasefire as the second phase requires the terror group to disarm and hand over control to a body of Palestinian technocrats. But Hamas has refused to live up to that part of the deal, declaring repeatedly in recent months that it won’t hand over its weapons. U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, vowed last week that “it’s a matter of when, and who will do it (disarm Hamas).”Mr. Huckabee said the International Stabilization Force, which has still not been deployed in Gaza, is “not so much a military force as it is a monitoring-the-border force. Who is actually going to do the disarming? I don’t know. It could end up that the only entity willing to do it is the IDF.”Israeli officials and sources told New York Sun earlier this year that the IDF will likely be the ones that have to disarm the rest of Hamas as no country has publicly committed to the task.

Netanyahu Says Israel Controls 60 Percent of Gaza, Has Eliminated Nearly Every October 7 ‘Architect’

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