Netanyahu: Israel will disarm Hamas and demilitarize Gaza if foreign troops don’t

Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter

Israel “has more work” to do in Gaza, says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking at a cadets’ graduation ceremony at the Bahad 1 officers’ school in southern Israel.

“If Hamas continues to explicitly violate the ceasefire, it will suffer powerful attacks like it did two days ago and yesterday,” he threatens. “We decide, and we are acting whenever necessary to remove immediate threats from our forces.”

“We decide, and we act,” he stresses, amid criticism that the US restrictions have led to underwhelming responses to deadly Hamas attacks on IDF troops.

“At the end of the day, Hamas will be disarmed and Gaza will be demilitarized,” he promises. “If foreign troops do it, great. If they don’t do it, we will.”

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