Israel Threatens War against Hamas

Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan warned that Israel could “in the coming days” launch a military campaign in the Gaza Strip. “When we talk about an agreement, we tried and we tried and we tried, it didn’t succeed,” said Erdan. “[Hamas] continues to allow the chaos from the Gaza Strip, and therefore there is an understanding today that there will be a need to go into a military operation.” Erdan’s comments came a day after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that, ” there probably won’t be a choice but to topple the Hamas regime.… We have a situation in which a terror group that launches rockets has taken over, and doesn’t rein in rogue factions even when it wants to,” the premier asserted. Tensions between Israel and Hamas have repeatedly erupted into violence over the past month, highlighted by last week’s rocket attacks on Ashdod, where Netanyahu had been delivering a pre-election address.