Israeli Foreign Minister, Eli Cohen yesterday informed EU lawmakers in Brussels that Israel’s war to wipe out Hamas in Gaza is ‘the war of the free world’.
Cohen also said Israel had been attacked not only by Hamas but by other separatists in the region that are supported by Iran, which he called ‘the world number one financer of terror’.
He was speaking alongside several Israelis whose relatives were taken hostage by Hamas when its members stormed communities near Gaza on 7th of October.
After calling Hamas ‘monsters’ and pleading for international help to secure the release of the more than 240 hostages being held, Cohen left to speak with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen.
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Africa Today News, New York reports that the 7th of October, the Israeli military has been bombarding Gaza in retaliation for the Hamas attack that killed more than 1,400 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to Israeli authorities.
The health ministry, which is under the control of Hamas, reports that over 10,500 people have died in Gaza, thousands of them children and mostly civilians.
Cohen played piano music over two minutes of graphic visuals that he said were from Hamas recordings shot during the October 7 attack during his tearful statement to the MEPs.
“The 7th of October was the worst day of the state of Israel and for the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” he said.
The foreign minister justified Israel’s intense bombardment of Gaza as necessary to root out Hamas “terrorism”.
“This is not just the war of the state of Israel. This is the war of the free world,” he said.
“We need to win this war in order to ensure that the West will not be next since terrorism, it’s like a cancer.”
Israel has said the goal of its military operation in Gaza is to eradicate Hamas.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that, when the war is over, Israel would assume “overall security” of Gaza.
Cohen said Hamas had used international financial aid to build tunnels and rocket factories while leaving Palestinians “starving”.
He said Iran was behind Hamas and others targeting Israel.