Israel’s ambassador to Greece Noam Katz expressed his gratitude for the public support, the solidarity he received from Greeks and the Greek government and the entire political spectrum, speaking to APE-MPE.

“The Greek government expressed its support for Israel and Israel’s right to self-defense, as well as its condemnation of Hamas and its atrocities. We received support from across the political spectrum, apart from a very small minority,” said Noam Katz.

The Israeli ambassador made special reference to the strategic friendship between Greece and Israel, stressing that the two countries have excellent relations. He stood by Greece’s help in transporting many people as flights were grounded.

Outlining the feelings of the Israeli people, he said he was surprised and shocked, but at the same time absolutely determined and united.

Afterwards, he announced that “Israel’s war is only against Hamas”. In particular, he said that “Israel’s goal is to defeat and destroy the terrorist army that was built by Hamas and clearly carried out the barbaric, inhumane attack on Israel, unprovoked on a public holiday, slaughtering more than 1,300 people, men, babies, and taking many women. hostages, even women with their children (more than 2,000 people were injured, many critically)’.

“This terrorist army cannot stay in place because if we don’t dismantle it, it will be capable of carrying out other similar attacks,” he added, noting that Hamas is an organization like ISIS. “It has an extremist and radical ideology and we must defeat it as the world defeated ISIS,” he stressed. “The war is against Hamas. The aim is to dismantle its military capabilities, to destroy the army of terror, just as was done with ISIS and how Raqqa and Mosul were liberated from the Islamic State. It is not a war against civilians. It is not a war against the Palestinians. This is not a war we wanted. They forced us. It is targeting Hamas terrorists and their media, and we are acting in accordance with the international law of armed conflict. We call on civilians to leave. We create safe evacuation corridors. It is Hamas that is preventing and calling on people not to leave and preventing them from leaving the areas that we are going to attack. If we attempt and in the way we will attempt, we will try as much as possible to protect the civilians who could not escape,” he said.

Speaking about the need to resolve the conflict in the region, he said it will be done by people who are committed to a political and diplomatic solution, not by barbaric Hamas terrorists who are dedicated to the death and genocide of Israelis and reject any peaceful solution.

Referring to the motives of Hamas, he said that it is a genocidal and criminal organization committed to the goal of the complete destruction of the state of Israel. “They want to change the course of history, they are part of a very radical axis of terrorism and extremism, which is led by Iran. It has other terrorist organizations in the Middle East such as Hezbollah in Lebanon. It finances, guides, trains, coordinates military, terrorist actions with the aim of destabilizing the entire Middle East,” he noted.

He expressed his belief that Israel is strong and will win. “Hamas is a terrorist organization, we must destroy it as much as possible, with the full support of the international community,” he said and added: “We must liberate Gaza from Hamas’ occupation.”

He said Hamas seized control, in a bloody coup, of the Gaza Strip from the Palestinian Authority, and established “a terrorist state that we were wrong to think could become more realistic because it had to manage the lives of 2 million people. It turns out she doesn’t care about these people at all, she sacrifices them, uses them as human shields for her malicious actions. We have to deal with this terrorist organization. If we don’t, we will see a repeat of Hamas’ atrocities on October 7th. It is a threat to the values ​​we stand for and the free world. It is not a political conflict. It is an attack on culture,” he added.

Referring to the possible involvement of Lebanon or Iran, he said that Israel was very clear: “We sent messages to the axis of radical terrorism, led by Iran, to stay out of the conflict. I hope this message will be fully understood. We hope they don’t miscalculate. We will defend ourselves against any threat.”