Tel Aviv (Israel), October 16 : Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu characterized Israel's ongoing war with Hamas as an existential battle against the "forces of darkness." He equated the fight against Hamas with a struggle between the "forces of light" representing humanity and the "forces of darkness" embodying animalism,The Times of Israel reported.
He emphasized that the main objective was to secure victory over Hamas.
"Even with the passage of 75 years, the war of independence hasn't ended," the Prime Minister told Israel's Parliament Knesset at the opening session of its winter session.
"We will win because our existence here is at stake," he said while likening Hamas to Nazi Germany and calling the conflict "a war between forces of light and forces of darkness, between humanity and animalism."
Netanyahu said that "our goal is victory over Hamas, toppling it from its rule," ten days after the terror group stormed Israel and massacred over 1,300 people, injured close to 4,000, and kidnapped about 200 hostages to the Gaza Strip, according to The Times of Israel.
Meanwhile, The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has said sirens are sounding in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
The IDF earlier said that Hamas is a genocidal terrorist organization. "We will eliminate Hamas," it said.
Meanwhile, Israel's Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli has thanked the Indian leadership, and the people of India for standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel in its fight against Hamas.
"I want to thank the leadership of India, the people of India for being with us shoulder-to-shoulder in this fight against brutal jihadist barbaric Islamist. This is not just our war, this is your war too and we will win it together with your support," he said.
He further said: "I want to tell the people of India - we share the same values, we cherish life, we cherish good...We believe in human values."
He said that there are more than 120 confirmed hostages. "We will make every effort to bring them back home. It won't be simple. As you know, Hamas has absolutely zero mercy and zero human values...So, we have no expectations from Hamas. Still, we believe we might, with intelligence, with efforts, maybe we can rescue some of them," he said.
"My recommendation for Hamas militants - lay down your weapon, raise up your hands, come from your tunnel and maybe there will be mercy," he added.
One of the towns that bore the brunt of the Hamas attack is Sderot in the South of Israel. Sderot Mayor Alon Davidi says Hamas must be destroyed.
"I have six children. All of them live in this situation. More than 50,000 people live in this situation. All of this time, I have asked the government to destroy Hamas" said the Sderot Mayor while speaking to ANI.
"We now see that the Hamas is the new ISIS of the world. Now, it's not just Israel's but everybody's role to destroy the Hamas. It is like the Hezbollah, the ISIS," he added.
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