Israel’s President Isaac Herzog defied the UN and called on Tuesday for the offensive against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to continue until the Hamas leader in the territory, Yahya Sinwar, is captured “dead or alive” and the Israeli hostages are freed. The UN Security Council passed a resolution on Monday demanding an “immediate” ceasefire in Gaza.
“The reality is this — and the world and we must face it — everything begins and ends with Yahya Sinwar,” Herzog told right-wing settlers in occupied Jerusalem. “He’s the one who decided on the October massacre, he’s been seeking to shed the blood of the innocent ever since, it is he who aims to escalate the regional situation, to desecrate Ramadan, to do everything to shatter coexistence in our country and in the whole region, to sow discord among us and around the world.”
The Israeli president insisted that, “[Sinwar] seeks terror and the entire world and our entire region must know that the responsibility lies with him, and with him alone. It won’t work. We won’t allow it.”
Although resistance against military occupation is entirely legitimate in international law, Israel and its allies continue to describe Palestinian resistance against Israel’s brutal military occupation of Palestine as “terrorism”. UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/38/17 adopted on 22 November, 1983 stated that it “Reaffirms the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for their independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial domination, apartheid and foreign occupation by all available means, including armed struggle.” (Emphasis added.)
Commenting on the impasse in the prisoner swap-ceasefire talks in Qatar, Herzog said: “At this moment, we must be united and determined. Israel is making every effort to bring the hostages home. Making every effort in a range of fields. In the end, there is no choice. We must continue the fight, and we must get to Sinwar — either dead or alive — so that we can see the hostages back home.”
Israel’s far-right Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, meanwhile, has commented on the crisis in relations between the Netanyahu government and the Biden administration that escalated following Israel’s threats to invade Rafah.
“If someone believes that we can yield to international pressure, he must realise that we will enter Rafah and dismantle the Hamas brigades there,” he insisted Smotrich. “There is an appreciation for friendship [with the US), but there are red lines and insistence on our position as well. It is possible to surrender to pressure and stop the war in the middle of it, and this will be a threat to the State of Israel.”
The US administration refuses to deal with or receive Smotrich because of his extremist positions. Moreover, Washington has claimed that the UN ceasefire resolution is “not binding” on Israel, even though the UN Charter makes it clear that Security Council resolutions are binding on all UN member states. China reiterated the latter point yesterday.
