UPDATE - Promising to eradicate Hamas is 'misleading,' says Israeli army spokesperson

ADDS ORIGINAL QUOTES, CHANGES HEAD, DECK, LEDE

By Zein Khalil

JERUSALEM (AA) — Promises to destroy Palestinian resistance group Hamas are "misleading," the Israeli military's spokesperson said Wednesday in apparent criticism of the country's political leadership.

“Anyone promising to eradicate Hamas is misleading the public,” Daniel Hagari told the broadcaster Channel 13 in an interview.

“Hamas is an idea. Those who think it can be made to disappear are wrong,” he added.

Hagari stressed that if the government "doesn’t find an alternative — it (Hamas) will remain" in Gaza.

Since the start of the Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has listed the destruction of Hamas as a key objective, despite skepticism from military analysts and Israeli observers about the feasibility of the goal.

Hagari discussed the army's announcement on June 8 about the release of four captives in a military operation in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. “It is not possible to release all hostages through military operations,” he acknowledged.

Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas.

Nearly 37,400 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and more than 85,400 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Over eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio