Israel’s ambassador to the UK spoke on Sky’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips programme where she dismissed the suggestion that support from Israel’s allies is waning.
“One of the ministers in the [US] cabinet said, ‘If you can give us a magic spell, maybe a Harry Potter stick to make those tunnels disappear, we’ll be very grateful’,” Tzipi Hotovely said.
“But this is not the case. We speak [about] reality on the ground.
“In order to have peace in the future, we must make sure Hamas is destroyed. This is why the American and UK governments and other international leaders share our goals.
“I really believe it will be for the better for Israelis and Palestinians,” she added.
Ms Hotovely later pushed back on Trevor Phillips’ question that Israel’s aim to destroy Hamas has resulted in abandoning hostages.
“What we realised when we saw the first hostages coming back home, they’re sharing their stories,” Tzipi Hotovely said.
“[Hamas] brutally tortured the people that they kept hostage. This is a war crime.
“The only thing that made Hamas get into negotiation, joined with the Qataris and the Americans, was the fact that Israel was with its troops on the ground in Gaza. Only this invasion brought Hamas to release our hostages.
“When we don’t put military pressure on Hamas, we get nothing.”
The ambassador also claimed that children who had been abducted by Hamas and released during the truce were starved and physically tortured.
“We’re saying to the world, look at the people we’re dealing with, the people that brutally murdered over a thousand Jews. We cannot live next to them,” she said.
“We need to make sure that Hamas is defeated. There is no other way to carry on in life in the Middle East.”