WarSclerotic

Two Israeli ministers have warned that Israel’s patience with ‎Hamas leaders is wearing thin and that any future Israeli military campaign is likely to include the ‎targeted assassination of terrorist leaders and potentially seizing ‎control of the Gaza Strip.

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, a member of the decision-making Diplomatic-Security ‎Cabinet, said Tuesday that “a shift from a defensive to an offensive policy against Hamas ‎means the targeted assassinations of terrorist leaders who are ‎members of Hamas’ military wing.”‎

He added that Israel is “closer than ever to seizing control of the ‎Gaza Strip.”

“This means taking and maintaining control of Gaza until ‎we eliminate its terrorist infrastructure,” Erdan said. “We’re closer than ever – ‎since the devastating [2005] disengagement – to having no other ‎choice but to take control over parts or all of Gaza.” ‎

Fellow cabinet member Housing and Construction Minister Yoav ‎Gallant told the audience that after the latest round of violence in ‎Gaza, the worst since 2014, Hamas military leader Yahya Sinwar “is at a dramatic ‎crossroads and has to rethink his course.”

“They [Hamas] have to ‎decide whether they want to fight us or preserve the calm,”‎ he said.

Gallant, formerly the IDF’s GOC Southern Command, stressed that “war is the ‎last resort. There will be a [military] campaign in Gaza, but we will ‎be the ones to determine the circumstances and the timing.”‎

He said that “Sinwar is living on borrowed time. He won’t end ‎his life in a retirement home.” ‎