Gallant: We will protect our children, no matter the price in Gaza

Housing Minister Yoav Gallant, a former head of Southern Command during the 2009 Cast Lead operation in Gaza, charges that “Hamas is taking two million Palestinian citizens as hostages. If they won’t behave themselves, they will set Gaza 10 years backward after this struggle. Whatever we must do to protect our citizens and our soldiers will be done, no matter what the price will be in Gaza.”

“We are ready to do whatever is necessary,” he says in a briefing organized by The Israel Project.

If needed, Israel will target Hamas’s leaders, the heads of its rocket-launching squad and eventually every single member of Hamas.

But if Hamas “behaves itself,” Israel will respond in a similar manner, he says.

“We are ready for peace,” he says when asked about efforts to reach a ceasefire. “This is Israel’s traditional position. If they will send us flowers, we will send them candies. No problem with that. Let’s hope for peace and let’s be ready for war.”

— Raphael Ahren