The target in the looming ground offensive will be the terrorists that launched the 7 October surprise attack against Israel, nothing else, according to the foreign country's top diplomat.
Israeli Ambassador to the Philippines Ilan Fluss on Tuesday told the DAILY TRIBUNE that Israeli Defense Forces, or IDF, planned ground offensive on the Gaza Strip has the sole aim of ending the terror reign of the Palestinian Sunni-Islamic extremist Hamas.
"Israel had to respond to a war which was opened by the Hamas. In a war, we must fight back. We are fighting Hamas," he said.
"We are not fighting against the Palestinians. We are not fighting against civilians. We are fighting Hamas," he added.
He issued the remarks days after the self-imposed 24-hour deadline of the IDF for 1.1 million civilians to evacuate northern Gaza expired.
Fluss condemned Hamas' actions to its fellow Palestinians and foreign nationals scrambling to leave northern Gaza.
"Hamas is taking civilians and using them as human shields. That is a problem when you're fighting a terror organization," he said.
"The Israeli Defense Forces or the IDF is doing its utmost to prevent any innocent lives, and we do this by calling on the civilians to move from the northern part of Gaza to the southern part of Gaza," he added.
He also accused Hamas of "purposely" blocking the roads to prevent civilians from taking refuge in the "safe zones" of the Palestinian territory.
The Israeli's top diplomat in the country assured that the IDF would exert full efforts to minimize civilian casualties.
"This is an internal issue within Gaza. Gaza is unfortunately controlled by Hamas, which is a terror organization," he said.
"So, it is a very complicated situation, but it is a war. We will do our best in order to avoid civilian casualties," he added.
Fluss called on the international community to also take time to understand what Hamas is doing to Israeli nationals.
"Hamas is using civilian infrastructures such as mosques, schools, kindergartens, residential apartment buildings, office buildings, hospitals — any kind of civilian infrastructure is good for them to be used because it gives them a certain amount of safety," he said.
He added: "Because they know that Israel is doing its best to avoid hitting civilians. You must remember that the Hamas agenda is exactly in conflict with the Israelis. They are targeting civilians. That is exactly the definition of a terror organization."
Attack gave no warning
In an earlier briefing with Filipino journalists, IDF spokesperson Major Libby Weiss echoed Fluss statement, underlining the need to eliminate Hamas.
"We are going certainly above what Hamas did on Saturday when we instructed the civilian population to move from areas where there could be danger," Weiss said.
She added: "We are telling them to go at this stage. They have had ample time to move to areas that are safer than where they are right now."
She continued: "And you know, for reference, none of the 1,400 people who were horrifically butchered by Hamas received any advance warning. There were no humanitarian considerations."
"The civilians were actually the targets last Saturday."
More than 1,400 Israelis were reportedly killed in the terror assault.
Weiss said the lives of the Palestinians and foreign nationals currently stranded in the besieged territory are at the hands of Hamas.
"The people in Gaza are not our targets in any way, and they never have been," she added.
Gov't on top of situation
The reopening of the Rafah border crossing, which will serve as the gateway to extract Filipinos from the war-torn Gaza Strip, could be happening "any day," the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday.
In a television interview, DFA Undersecretary for Migrant Workers' Affairs Eduardo de Vega said that the Rafah border crossing remained closed to Palestinians, including foreign nationals, who scrambled to escape from the planned ground offensive in the
Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
"As of now, there is still no approval to allow foreign citizens to enter Egypt through the Rafah crossing," De Vega said.
"The only hope is the Rafah border crossing. Israel and Egypt are coordinating the process because they also do not want Hamas to leave Gaza and enter Egypt," he added. "But let us wait because the Israeli ambassador said it could happen any day now."
De Vega said there are 135 Filipinos in the Gaza Strip, revising its previous count.
"After raising the alert level, there were an additional four," he said.
He noted that the additional four are composed of one Filipina mother and her three children.
"These four also want to go home," he said.
The DFA said that at least 92 Filipinos in the Gaza Strip intend to return to the Philippines following the ongoing war between Israel and Palestinian Sunni-Islamic extremist Hamas.
It also noted that all of the Filipinos who are currently stranded in Gaza are accounted for.