Israel's Ambassador to the Philippines, Ilan Fluss, stressed yesterday that his country does not want the United Nations to interfere in its war against the extremist group Hamas, which killed at least 1,400 people, mostly Israeli civilians, in an unprecedented attack last 7 October.

In a roundtable discussion with DAILY TRIBUNE editors and reporters, Fluss accused the UN of having a long-standing anti-Israel bias as he brushed aside a UN Security Council call for a "humanitarian pause" in the conflict.

The UN was founded 78 years ago to the day today, on 24 October 1945.

"We're in a war against Hamas, which is like the war in Afghanistan (following the 11 September 2001 or 9/11 terror attacks against the United States)," said Fluss, describing the attack by Hamas as second only in barbarity to what Israelis faced during the holocaust.

Hitler's Nazi Germany exterminated about six million European Jews from 1941 to 1945 during the Holocaust in World War 2. The genocide would spur the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.

"We will make sure that there's no humanitarian crisis as much as possible, and we are trying hard to minimize the casualties there," he said, explaining that the airstrikes in the Gaza Strip are targeting well-known Hamas enclaves.

Israel, with about 300,000 soldiers and armor massed at its border with Gaza, has expressed an intent to launch a ground offensive to rout Hamas, without occupying the territory it left in 2005.

Fluss pointed out that civilians in Gaza are being warned in advance of the attacks, with pleas made for them to relocate to its south, away from the fighting.

War on terror

"Our objective in this war is to ensure that Hamas will no longer be able to attack Israel like it did. We will remove their capability in a war that is solely against Hamas and not the Palestinians," Fluss said.

The envoy stressed that Israel is not against delivering humanitarian aid to the civilians in Gaza, while stressing Israel's right to protect its citizens against terrorist groups like Hamas, the Islamic Jihad and the Hezbollah in Lebanon.