Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged a complete takeover of Gaza from Hamas, but the U.S. is urging a delay until the remaining hostages are released — a move that, in effect, allows Hamas to justify holding what Israel describes as "human shields.", News.Az informs via NewsMax.
Sources told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday that U.S. officials are seeking progress on hostage and remains returns through diplomacy before the major ground invasion commences in full force. Officials are requesting Israel's delay.
Netanyahu has pledged to hold all areas under full Israel control to accomplish the long-stated war goals: 1. Return all hostages; 2. Destroy Hamas in total; 3. Deradicalize and demilitarize Gaza.
Netanyahu's regime contends that third goal can only be accomplished with Israel's occupation of Gaza to root out radical anti-Israel extremism that led to the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack.
The security situation in Gaza remains tenuous without a controlling force under Israel's view.
Not only are Hamas terrorists reportedly looting the humanitarian aid for the innocent civilians, but they are also reportedly firing on civilians seeking to access the aid the sympathetic world has demanded Israel release. Israel has long warned aid is getting stolen by hostage-holding terrorists it seeks to remove from power first.
Former U.S. Undersecretary of Defense Robert Wilkie told Newsmax on Sunday that diplomacy with the "ultimate death cult" of Hamas has proved impossible over decades.
"If Benjamin Netanyahu wanted to commit genocide, he wouldn't have put one Israeli soldier in danger," he said. "He would have just flattened Gaza. He put his soldiers' lives at risk because there is a moral component to the Israeli fight that is almost nowhere on the planet, and it is rooted in 3,000 years of biblical history and truth."
