JERUSALEM – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on May 17 that Israel had almost completed a key goal of the war in Gaza – eliminating all those responsible for orchestrating the Oct 7 attacks.
His remarks followed the Israeli military’s announcement that Izz al-Din al-Haddad, commander of Hamas’s armed wing, had been killed in an airstrike in Gaza on May 15.
In the aftermath of the Oct 7 assault, Mr Netanyahu pledged to target and eliminate the masterminds behind the attacks, which, according to an AFP tally based on official figures, left 1,221 people dead in Israel.
“I promised that every single architect of the massacre and the hostage-taking would be eliminated down to the last one, and we are very close to completing this mission,” Mr Netanyahu said during the weekly Cabinet meeting, describing Haddad as a “despicable terrorist”.
Since Hamas’s cross-border assault, the Israeli military and intelligence services have waged a campaign targeting the group’s senior political leaders and militant commanders in Gaza and across the region.
During the war triggered by the Hamas attacks, Israel has claimed responsibility for assassinating several Hamas leaders, including Yahya Sinwar, who was widely regarded as one of the masterminds behind the Oct 7 attack.
It also killed Mohammed Deif, the longtime commander of Hamas’s armed wing and another architect of the attack.
Mr Netanyahu also reiterated on May 17 that Israeli forces currently control 60 per cent of Gaza’s territory.
The statement suggests that the military has continued to expand its operational presence in Gaza, following recent media reports that Israeli troops had advanced toward a newly-designated “Orange Line”.
Under the terms of the US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in effect since Oct 10, Israeli forces were to withdraw to a so-called “Yellow Line” in Gaza, leaving them in control of more than 50 per cent of the Palestinian territory.
“We have Hamas in our grip. We know exactly what our mission is, and our mission is: To ensure that Gaza will never again pose a threat to Israel,” Mr Netanyahu said.
Israel’s military campaign against Hamas since the October 2023 attacks has killed more than 72,700 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to the territory’s health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority.
The United Nations considers these figures reliable. AFP
