(Ottawa) The war against Hamas “will take time,” warned Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen. And if Lebanon does not want to taste the same medicine as the Gaza Strip, it must find a way to control Hezbollah, warned a spokesperson for the Israeli armed forces.
“We are working day and night to ensure that international support and solidarity for Israel continues. Because this war will take time,” said the head of Tel Aviv diplomacy during a Zoom press conference organized for international media on Tuesday.
But there is “no doubt that Hamas will be defeated” and that “Gaza will no longer be a threat to Israel or to anyone,” he insisted. “We are fighting for the whole of the free world”, because if the terror is not stopped, it will spread “like a cancer” in Paris, London and New York, he continued.
PHOTO MAZEN MAHDI, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Eli Cohen
Minister Cohen again urged residents of the northern Gaza Strip to leave their homes and move south “immediately, to [leur] own security”. Israel, he assured, “respects international law” and “never” would target “civilians, children, families”.
Such a massive population displacement certainly puts “pressure” on the humanitarian level, and it is “a subject of concern”, but the needs of the displaced “can be met”, according to Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner, spokesperson. word of the IDF.
Warning to Hezbollah and Lebanon
The attention of the Israeli armed forces is also focused on another front: the border with Lebanon, to the north. There, Hezbollah’s activities intensified, he argued. “There is a tendency towards escalation,” said the soldier before issuing a warning.
“The sovereign State of Lebanon is responsible for any act of terrorism originating from its territory. […] I would tell Hezbollah and the Lebanese leaders to look carefully at how we are dismantling Hamas in the Gaza Strip,” he said.
“We are ready to fight on two fronts if necessary,” said Lieutenant Colonel Lerner.
Lebanon: “It’s time to leave”
The Trudeau government, through the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, is now recommending that Canadians in Lebanon leave while there is still time. Nearly 15,000 people are registered in the register of Canadians in Lebanon.
PHOTO SEAN KILPATRICK, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Melanie Joly
“If you are in Lebanon, it’s time to leave,” she said in a press scrum in parliament on Tuesday.
The minister also confirmed that the toll of Canadian victims of attacks committed by Hamas had increased further. One death was added, bringing to six the number of Canadians whose lives were taken in Israel.
Two people are still missing.
White phosphorus in Gaza?
Asked to comment on accusations made by organizations such as Human Rights Watch that Israel had used white phosphorous munitions in its military operations, Lt. Col. Lerner denied it.
“I cannot confirm that there has been use of white phosphorus as we speak. The fact that an organization relies on an image to arrive at this conclusion does not necessarily mean that it is true,” he argued.
Minister Cohen did not answer any questions from journalists.