Herzog to US media: Hamas’s ‘pure cruelty’ must be ‘met forcefully’

Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Thursday highlighted to American media the cruelty the Jewish state is facing in its war against Hamas terrorists and as the country works to bring home the 70 hostages still held by the Palestinians in Gaza.

“The Islamic Jihad and Hamas have killed barbarically innocent kids and their mothers and their fathers and grandparents all throughout on that horrific October 7, let’s not delude ourselves. There is a girl, Mila Cohen, not even a one-year-old toddler, they shot her in a bedroom,” Herzog said in an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash.

“Why would they take a family like the Bibas family? What brings somebody to kidnap a mother and two toddlers in their pajamas? And this shows the cruelty of the enemy that we are dealing with. Pure cruelty that must be met forcefully, because it’s a threat to the ordinary human beings,” he added.

Speaking to MSNBC‘s “Morning Joe” program, Herzog said, “It is a true reality of what we Israelis have been going through with these jihadists who’ve taken over Gaza and turned it into an Iranian terror base against Israel with their hate, with a lack of morality and with their barbaric approach to life. They believe in death. We believe in life. ...

“We did not seek that war on October 7, 2023; these barbaric guys went into Israel, raping, abducting, burning, taken hostages and killing people all throughout the border [who] were in their homes, dwelling in their life, an internationally recognized border,” continued the president. “They’ve ruined the hope of Israelis, and they ruined the hope of Palestinians too. And I think it is what you call pure cruelty. And one has to understand that to fight pure cruelty, you have to fight totally and uproot pure cruelty, because terror is what leads to this vicious cycle in our region.”