PM to German chancellor: If Hamas remains in Gaza it’ll ‘regroup and reconquer’
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Jerusalem, in which he says the two leaders had a”very serious conversation, an important conversation among friends.”
“We also agreed that Hamas has to be eliminated,” Netanyahu says, noting that if the terror group is allowed to stay in Gaza it will “regroup and reconquer and, as they vowed, repeat the [October 7] massacre again and again and again.”
During the meeting, Netanyahu says his German counterpart asked him to do more to protect civilians in Gaza amid the ongoing war and to allow more humanitarian aid for Palestinians enter the Strip.
Netanyahu notes Israel’s efforts to protect civilians while Hamas uses them as human shields, as well as the challenges of distributing aid within the Strip amid urban warfare.
On his third trip to Israel since war erupted with Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, the German chancellor says the hostages held by terror groups for over 160 days are in his country’s “thoughts and prayers.”
“In these dark hours my country stands with the people of Israel. From day one our message has been clear,” he says, stressing Israel’s right to self defense. “By fighting Hamas terrorists Israel is fighting a legitimate goal.”
However, he says that the Palestinian death toll is “extremely high, many would argue, much too high.”
War erupted in Gaza after Hamas’s October 7 massacre, which saw some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel killing some 1,200 people and seizing 253 hostages, mostly civilians, many amid horrific acts of brutality and sexual assault.
