'War between light and darkness': Benjamin Netanyahu asserts Israel's determination to defeat Hamas

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, described Israel’s ongoing conflict with Hamas as a struggle for existence against the “forces of darkness.” Benjamin Netanyahu compared Israel’s conflict with Hamas to a conflict between the “forces of light” that stand for humanity and the “forces of darkness” that represent animalism. He made it clear that defeating Hamas was the primary goal. “Even with the passage of 75 years, the war of independence hasn’t ended,” the Prime Minister told Israel’s Parliament Knesset at the opening session of its winter session. “We will win because our existence here is at stake,” he said while likening Hamas to Nazi Germany and calling the conflict “a war between forces of light and forces of darkness, between humanity and animalism.” Netanyahu said that “our goal is victory over Hamas, toppling it from its rule,” ten days after the terror group stormed Israel and massacred over 1,300 people, injured close to 4,000, and kidnapped about 200 hostages to the Gaza Strip, according to The Times of Israel. In the meantime, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are reporting hearing sirens, according to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). The IDF previously declared Hamas to be a terrorist group committed to mass murder. “We will eliminate Hamas,” it said. Amichai Chikli, the minister of diaspora affairs for Israel, has congratulated the government and people of India for supporting Israel in its conflict with Hamas. “I want to thank the leadership of India, the people of India for being with us shoulder-to-shoulder in this fight against brutal jihadist barbaric Islamist. This is not just our war, this is your war too and we will win it together with your support,” he said. He further said: “I want to tell the people of India - we share the same values, we cherish life, we cherish good…We believe in human values.” He said that there are more than 120 confirmed hostages. “We will make every effort to bring them back home. It won’t be simple. As you know, Hamas has absolutely zero mercy and zero human values…So, we have no expectations from Hamas. Still, we believe we might, with intelligence, with efforts, maybe we can rescue some of them,” he said. “My recommendation for Hamas militants - lay down your weapon, raise up your hands, come from your tunnel and maybe there will be mercy,” he added. Sderot in the South of Israel was one of the communities that took the brunt of the Hamas assault. Alon Davidi, the mayor of Sderot, said Hamas must be eliminated. “I have six children. All of them live in this situation. More than 50,000 people live in this situation. All of this time, I have asked the government to destroy Hamas” the Sderot Mayor told the media. “We now see that the Hamas is the new ISIS of the world. Now, it’s not just Israel’s but everybody’s role to destroy the Hamas. It is like the Hezbollah, the ISIS,” he added. (With agency inputs)