(Dan Tri) – A senior Israeli official said there will be no ceasefire in Gaza, and both Israel and the US want to rescue more than 200 hostages held by Hamas as quickly as possible.
Israel announced that it would not abandon its plan to attack on Gaza (Photo: Getty).
Guardian quoted an anonymous senior Israeli official as saying on October 22 that there will be no ceasefire in the Gaza Strip amid efforts by the US and Qatar to help rescue more than 200 hostages being held by Hamas.
This official added that he did not know the information that the US called on Israel to postpone the ground attack plan in Gaza while both the US and Israel wanted to rescue all hostages `as quickly as possible`.
However, the official said, Israel will not let humanitarian efforts affect the goal of destroying Hamas.
The Israel-Hamas conflict flared up again on October 7 when Hamas suddenly fired more than 2,000 rockets toward Israel.
Currently, Israel mainly responds to Hamas with airstrikes and shelling and plans a ground attack in Gaza.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on October 22 that the country continues to pursue plans for a ground attack on Gaza.
`This will be the last ground operation in Gaza for the simple reason that after that there will be no more Hamas. It will take 1 month, or 2-3 months but eventually there will be no more Hamas,` Mr. Gallant said.
Within just a few days after the Hamas attack, the Israeli army mobilized about 360,000 reservists and began planning an attack on Gaza.
Israeli military sources initially said that bad weather delayed the plan, while media said the main reason Israel delayed a ground attack on Gaza was the risks they could face.
Those risks can include the risk of failure when not carefully prepared, the risk of losing military forces when facing Hamas’s battlefield, and the risk of the hostage rescue campaign.
Bloomberg on October 20 quoted well-informed sources as saying that the US and some European allies are pressuring Israel to postpone its ground attack on Gaza until all hostages are released through negotiations.
Amidst a lot of disturbing information about plans for a ground attack on Gaza, Israeli planes continued to attack this territory.
Fierce fighting over the past two weeks has left nearly 4,700 people in Gaza and more than 1,400 people in Israel dead.
