Hamas' attack on Israel is the worst attack on Jews since the holocaust and the Palestinian group is deliberately keeping hostages in places where it knows Israel would carry out bombings, the country's former national security adviser has said. The comment by Eyal Hulata was in response to a statement by Hamas that nine more Israeli hostages have been killed in Gaza in Israeli airstrikes
In an exclusive interview with NDTV, Mr Hulata also said that Israel has got immense support from India, which means a lot to them because India is a very important country in the world and "a rising power globally".
"Last Saturday, Hamas carried out the worst terror attacks in the history of Israel. In fact, the amount of casualties, the amount of people slaughtered in their homes, in their beds, this does not resemble anything that Israel has experienced or Jewish people have experienced maybe since the holocaust. Hamas is a terrorist organisation and they have conducted this and done this deliberately," Mr Hulata said.
The former NSA asserted that the aim of the Israeli government is not to retaliate but to remove Hamas from leadership in Gaza so that these things cannot happen again.
'Human Shields'
Pointing to a Hamas statement that nine more hostages have been killed in Israeli airstrikes, Mr Hulata said that the group had snatched about 150 people, most of them civilians, including babies, the elderly, and people in wheelchairs.
"They brought them back to Gaza to put them as human shields where we attack. The Israeli Army does not attack civilians. We give advance warning before we attack so that people know where it's going to be. When nine Israeli hostages are killed by Hamas, what does that mean? It means Hamas put them where they know that we are attacking, deliberately, so that they can put this message out and try to demoralise the people in Israel. This is sickening and heartbreaking," he said.
Mr Hulata said Hamas needs to release all of the hostages immediately and this demand must not come just from Israel but from the international community. "Or at least till they are still alive, because, as you can see, Hamas is doing whatever they can to make sure that there are fewer every day," he rued.
Iran Angle?
On the situation in Gaza and Israel's blocking of food and medical access, the former NSA said Hamas cannot both kill people in Israel and then expect humanitarian aid from them.
"Hamas brought this upon its people. Israel has called for the evacuation of civilians because we don't want to hurt them. But we have to get rid of Hamas... If Hamas would only release the hostages and stop shooting at us, what will we we do? We will stop firing, right? They need to relinquish power," he said.
Pointing out that Israel was in the middle of negotiating a normalisation agreement with Saudi Arabia, Mr Hulata said, "Hamas did not only attack us. It ruined a process in the Middle East and it has done so deliberately because this is their ideology and this is the Iranian ideology which provided the means and funding and training and also, potentially, direct orders to do this at this time."
The former NSA said Israel failed to recognise that Hamas had made a strategic shift from trying to manage Gaza and "play out of the playbook" and seek to murder Israelis. "I don't understand the logic, but you can never understand the logic of terrorist organisations. They played out of the playbook and this will be the consequence. They have to be removed from power in Gaza."
9/11 And Terror in India
To a question on the frequent comparisons of Hamas with ISIS and how accurate they are, Mr Hulata said people need to have something that they know, in their memory, to understand what they are seeing. He said the closest something came to last Saturday's brutality inflicted on Israel by Hamas was what ISIS has done in the past.
"India has had its rounds of terrorism before, you know how devastating it can be. This does not resemble anything you have seen before. We need to understand the numbers - 1,000 people were killed in a single day and we are a country of 10 million people. India has over a billion people, this would be like taking out 100,000 people in a single day," he said.
"When US President Joe Biden spoke up to the entire world and made that comparison (with ISIS), he spoke from the bottom of the heart. At least to the Americans, this looks like 9/11 by the magnitude and the hurt inside of the nation. That a terrorist group reached out and took so many lives in a single day. We did not want to be on this list. But we are, and Israel is a strong country, and we will prevail," he asserted.
Regional Escalation
On the involvement of Hezbollah, Mr Hulata said the group is a creation and proxy of Iran and if it joins this war it will be because Iran has decided to "put another piece on the board in the game after they have done this with Hamas".
"I hope for Lebanon that Hezbollah does not do this. Because if they do, Israel will need to go after them as well. I hope they make a more reasonable calculus, but they are also a terrorist organisation. Once Hezbollah joins the war, everyone will know Iran is behind this. Iran is the sole source of most of the extreme Islamic terrorism around the world. India knows that as well," he said.
The former NSA emphasised that Israel is seeking normalisation with its neighbours and does not want another war in the Middle East.
India's Support
On support from India, Mr Hulata said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was very clear in his messages and Israel is thankful for that.
"I think the support we are getting from India is immense. I participated in a meeting with PM Modi about two years ago with then Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. We could feel in his presence the real friendship and support. I think it is important that the international community and India understand that when you say Israel has a right to defend itself, it means Israel has a right to fight," he said.
"We are not retaliating on the Gazans. We need to fight this war. War is ugly, we didn't ask for it. The support from India means a lot because India is a very important country. India is the most populated country in the world and a rising economy and power, not only in Asia but globally. Having India understand that we have a right to fight, to defend ourselves so this does not happen again is really important to us," the former NSA added.
