At the same time that the world is shocked by the dramatic scenes coming from Gaza, the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, has made it clear that “a second stage of the war against Hamas” has begun, whose objectives would be, according to designated, destroy the Hamas army and government and recover the hostages held in Gaza.
Netanyahu spoke forcefully in a press conference this Saturday, in which he warned that the war will be "long and difficult", while his troops continue their operations with intense bombing and ground combat.
Likewise, he has announced that he has approved an expansion of the "land invasion" of the Gaza Strip: "We have unanimously approved an expansion of the land invasion. Our objective is concrete: defeat a murderous enemy. We have declared 'never again' and we reiterate 'never again'".
The Israeli leader has also made it clear that he will not respond to petitions demanding an end to attacks against the civilian population in Gaza, denying accusations of "war crimes."
“We must defeat him completely. We say never again, and that never again is now. My heart breaks for the hostages and the hostages' families. His kidnapping is a crime against humanity. “Anyone who dares to accuse our troops of committing war crimes is completely hypocritical, liars who do not have an iota of morality,” she indicated.
Thus, Netanyahu has pointed out that it is not Israel's war, but "the war of the civilized world." “All our allies in the Western world and our colleagues in the Arab world understand today that if Israel does not win, they will be next in this mission of the Axis of Evil,” he said.
The Israeli prime minister has referred to the war as the "second war of independence", drawing a connection to the Arab-Israeli war between 1947 and 1949 that occurred when Israel declared its independence.
Meanwhile, the territory of Gaza, of 362 square kilometers and where 2.4 million inhabitants live together, has been practically isolated from the world since Friday. Telecommunications and Internet have been cut off. The Israeli army has warned that it considers the entire Gaza City area as a "battlefield" and urged the population to "immediately evacuate" the town to the south of the Strip.
