In an interview with Euronews on Friday, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that the real headquarters of Hamas leadership were located in Khan Yunis.
“Every citizen, every baby, every child that is killed is terrible. So, I don’t want to argue about the numbers. Everyone that is killed there, it’s terrible.” the former Israeli leader said. He went on, though, asking that, when nations around the world voted against a ceasefire, an act, he argued that implicitly condoned the Israeli action, if those nations expected that there would be no casualties.
“Khan Yunis, which is in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, is the real headquarters of Hamas,” Olmert said. “There they have the leadership, they are hiding, they have the bunkers, they have the command positions, they have the launching pads.”
❝The Hamas command center is in Khan Younis – not Shifa hospital.❞ Exclusive interview with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert by @ShonaMurray_ Watch in full: https://t.co/Ej3dR1ylkn pic.twitter.com/CkarF1kIVp
— euronews (@euronews) November 17, 2023
Euronews interviewer Shona Murray pushed back, stating that the narrative has been that Al-Shifa Hospital has been the center of the Hamas command structure, adding that Al-Shifa has not revealed Hamas tunnels or weaponry.
“You have seen the weaponry, you haven’t seen the leaders,” Olmert clarified. “There [is] so many fake news. It’s now part of life. Everything is spread carelessly. Had you asked me two weeks ago, I’d have told you that the center is really in Khan Yunis. What Israel needs to do now is to announce that when the military battle [is] over, immediately, Israel is prepared to embark on negotiations with the Palestinian Authority for a two-state solution.”
A two-state solution would include Gaza in Palestinian state
This two-state solution, Olmert said, would include the Gaza Strip in the Palestinian state.
Israel has called on Gazan residents to evacuate cities in the southern portion of the Strip, including Khan Yunis.
The Israeli military dropped leaflets making the request, asking civilians to go to designated areas where Israel could facilitate the transfer of humanitarian aid.
Murray then asked the former prime minister if Israel should conduct an inquiry into why the IDF didn’t show up to the southern Israel communities as quickly as it should have on October 7th, a mistake that left many residents of Israel to bear the brunt of Hamas’s brutality for an extended period of time.
“We’ll have to make a very thorough investigation,” Olmert answered. He added that he believed the Israeli leadership, on whose watch the October 7th massacre occurred, drastically underestimated Hamas.
In a recent interview on BBC Newsnight, Olmert explicitly names Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as this “leadership,” saying that up until October 7th, Netanyahu had security responsibility for Gaza, before he “completely failed.”
“He had security responsibility for Gaza until the 7th of October… he completely failed.”Fmr Israeli PM, Ehud Olmert, says Israel should hand security in Gaza to the Americans and Europeans after the immediate conflict is over, until the Palestinian Authority can take charge. pic.twitter.com/xIDKGHcpHw
— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) November 17, 2023
In the Euronews interview, he says that Israel has learned not to underestimate Hamas anymore.
“They are serious. They are sophisticated. They are just brutal. We will have to destroy them,” he said.
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