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Israeli minister: Hamas leader’s ‘days are numbered’

Yahya Sinwar’s “days are numbered. He won’t end ‎his life in an old-age home,” Minister Yoav Galant warned. 

By Jack Gold, World Israel News

Any Israeli counterterrorism campaign in Gaza will likely include the ‎targeted assassination of terrorist leaders and possibly the recapturing of the Gaza Strip, two Israeli ministers warned.

Speaking at The Jerusalem Post Diplomatic Conference in Jerusalem on Wednesday, Housing and Construction Minister Yoav ‎Galant told the audience that after the latest round of violence in ‎Gaza last week, during which the terror group fired some 500 rockets at Israel, Hamas military leader Yahya Sinwar‘s “days are numbered. He won’t end ‎his life in an old-age home.”

Asked if Israel would target him, Galant said that Sinwar “is at a very dramatic ‎junction and has to recalculate his route, whether they [Hamas] want to fight us or keep the quiet.”

Galant, formerly head of the IDF’s Southern Command, stressed that Hamas must decide “if they want to fight,” in which case, “we will defeat them. If they want to behave themselves and to talk, whether it’s through a third party, we will hear them.”

Asked again about assassinating Sinwar, the minister replied, “I’m saying that his time is limited. As I said…he has to behave himself for good reasons.”

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Throughout the years, Israel has targeted Palestinian terrorist leaders in various ways, most commonly from the air in Gaza.

Speaking at the same event, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said that “just as we’re moving from defense to offense in the fight against BDS, we must move from defense to offense in the fight against Hamas in Gaza.”

“Moving from defense to offense against Hamas means going back to targeted killings of the terrorist leaders of Hamas’ military wing. And it also means being willing to capture and hold the Gaza Strip until we dismantle the terrorist infrastructure,” he clarified.

Israel is “closer than ever to seizing control of the ‎Gaza Strip… Since the disastrous disengagement plan,[Israel is] being forced to recapture parts or all of the Gaza Strip.”

Israel withdrew completely from Gaza in the summer of 2005.

“If that is the only way we can guarantee longterm quiet and security for our citizens, then that is what we will do,” he pledged.