On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Source,” IDF Spokesman Jonathan Conricus stated that while it would be nice if Hamas used the pause under the hostage release deal approved by the Israeli Cabinet to take care of the civilians it claims to care about, it won’t.
Conricus said, “One would hope that — Hamas has been asking or pleading for this pause for many days now, one would hope that they would use it in order to care for civilians in the southern Gaza Strip and take care of their needs, but I think one would be naive in doing so. Hamas, they don’t care about the Palestinians, they don’t care about their humanitarian needs, and I fear that Hamas will use the pause in fighting in order to try to resupply and regroup. Of course, we would rather continue to apply pressure on Hamas, continue to fight them and defeat them in their strongholds, as we are doing in northern Gaza City. But, this pause is, of course for a very, very important cause, and that is why the IDF said, clearly, on record to the Israeli government, that we do support it. And, of course, we want to see the hostages back and any means [of] achieving that is [worth] doing. We will be vigilant on the ground and we will continue to monitor Hamas’ activities, if they try to violate…we will be ready for any such violation and respond accordingly.”
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