Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant explicitly threatened the leaders of Hamas at the press conference on Wednesday hours before a hostage release deal with the terrorist organization was to be set in motion.
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At the event, Netanyahu warned the Islamic organization's senior officials, who orchestrated the biggest terrorist attack in Israeli history on Oct. 7, that Israel had put a target on them.
"I have instructed the Mossad to act against the leaders of Hamas." Netanyahu also claimed that "there is no commitment in the ceasefire agreement not to act in the aftermath against the leaders of Hamas in any way."
Netanyahu addressed the question of whether the leaders of Hamas have immunity under the hostage deal that was approved this week, which could see as many as 50 hostages released in the first stage some six weeks after they were abducted by the terrorist group into the Gaza Strip during the atrocities, which resulted in some 1200 Israeli residents murdered, with some women raped and brutalized.
Video: Israel exposes Hamas network beneath and next to Gaza's hospitals / Credit: Reuters
Netanyahu stressed that the hostage release does not involve any provision that guarantees the safety of the terrorist leaders. "Such a clause does not exist," he said.
Minister Gallant specifically referred to Ismail Haniyeh and Khalid Mashaal, who run Hamas' political bureau. "They are living on borrowed time. All over the globe. They are walking dead people."
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