Bennett: If we don’t act, tens of thousands of Hamas rockets will be aimed at us

Education Minister Naftali Bennett says the government’s willingness to reach an accommodation with Hamas will lead to a much stronger Hamas down the road, when Israel next faces war with the Gaza-based terror group.

“Today Hamas is a small and not particularly strong group, but if we shut our eyes, we will soon meet a Hamas with tens of thousands of missiles threatening the State of Israel. I’m not willing to let that happen,” he tells Hadashot television news in an interview today.

Bennett, who has been urging a much more aggressive policy against incendiary balloon attacks from the Strip, clarifies that he is “opposed to a ground incursion,” saying he did not share the belief of some fellow ministers that the only options available to Israel were accommodation or invasion. “There are other ways to contain Hamas’s terror,” he insists, but does not elaborate in the interview.

“We can’t tolerate 140 days of shooting rockets and launching balloons at us, then at their whistle we suddenly stand at attention. That’s their method of threatening Israel, and we must not surrender to these threats.”