Sovereignty Support Movement Sovereignty for West Asia
from the News Desk at The Cradle, published February 23, 2023
Editor’s note: I know, this is redundant with the messaging of the last 2 years….. but really?!? A NEW war on the continually starved and bombed people and already destroyed landscape of Gaza?
The minister said Hamas will be given an ‘ultimatum’ in the coming days to either disarm or be attacked with full US backing.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on 23 February that Hamas will soon be given a choice to either disarm or face a new campaign with full backing from Washington, threatening that military plans are already being made.
“It is estimated that in the coming days, Hamas will be given an ultimatum to disarm and fully demilitarize Gaza,” Smotrich told Israel’s Broadcasting Corporation (KAN).
“We have not given up on destroying Hamas. We are giving the US President a chance to do it in his own way,” he added.
“If Hamas does not comply, the Israeli army will receive international legitimacy and American backing to do it itself. The army is already preparing for this and making plans. On the political level, we have held several discussions to fine-tune these plans,” the finance minister went on to say.
“There are currently two or three alternatives we are examining to determine which is the most appropriate. One thing is certain: The army will enter and conquer Gaza if Hamas does not disarm.”
Israel has refused to abide by the terms of the so-called ceasefire deal and has killed at least 615 Palestinians since the US-backed agreement went into effect late last year.
US President Donald Trump’s plan to deploy an international military force to Gaza remains shrouded in uncertainty, with some states unwilling to facilitate the resistance’s disarmament as the agreement stipulates.
The president has announced a multi-billion-dollar reconstruction plan, which officials say will begin in Israeli-held territory in Gaza. Israel has expanded its presence inside the strip in violation of the deal.
Tel Aviv maintains that a full reconstruction process cannot begin until Hamas is disarmed.
Hamas has publicly rejected surrendering its arms until Palestinian statehood is achieved. Some of the group’s officials have signaled a willingness to enter into talks on the matter and discuss potentially freezing weapons or placing them under Arab custodianship in exchange for security guarantees.
Yet no agreement has been made on the matter despite repeated threats from Trump and Israel.
Senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk said in late January that the group never agreed to disarm.
Smotrich’s announcement on Monday comes a week after Israeli Cabinet Secretary and top aide to Israel’s premier, Yossi Fuchs, said Hamas will be given a 60-day period to surrender its arms or face a resumption of all-out war in the Gaza Strip.
The US president has previously threatened that Hamas will have “hell to pay” if it does not surrender its weapons.
Israeli news site Ynet reported last month that Israel’s military is preparing a series of new attacks on the ruins of the northern Gaza Strip to “collapse” the ceasefire in order to deal with Palestinian resistance fighters who have rearmed and reorganized in recent months.
The army’s Northern Brigades are “preparing the ground for renewed fighting with Hamas, for the collapse of the ceasefire, for the entry of divisions and for rapid assaults on Hamas’s commanding positions now in plain sight,” Ynet revealed.
“Faced with the failure to decisively defeat Hamas, its renewed buildup, and resistance within Israel to Qatari involvement in building a new state for two million Gazans, it appears that the military option, once again only the military option, is merely a matter of time,” the report adds.
