Maj. Doron Spielman, a spokesman for Israel Defense Forces, told Newsmax on Friday he doesn't expect Hamas terrorists to work on humanitarian efforts in the Gaza Strip during a pause in fighting.
The pause, which began early Friday, was designed to return hostages taken by Hamas during its Oct. 7 terrorist attack in southern Israel in exchange for Palestinians, mostly women and minors, imprisoned in Israel. The first set of Israeli hostages returned home Friday night.
"We anticipate that Hamas will not be using this to carry out humanitarian work, even though they may try to be convincing the world in a ridiculous way that they are a humanitarian organization with some of the videos they've put out," Spielman told "The Record With Greta Van Susteren" and guest host Tom Basile.
"They're going to use this time to further their terror activities. There's almost no question and that is why they don't want us looking at them and why they've insisted that our drones don't fly over Gaza."
Spielman said the pause is only going to make the IDF more precise in what they're doing. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted the goal of Israel's ground operation in the Gaza Strip is to destroy Hamas and rescue hostages, and that goal will continue after the pause is over.
"We're using this time to replace some of our troops, to allow them to focus on some of the intelligence that we gathered, the operational methodology and to prepare for the next stage," Spielman said. "In fact, we're going to use this to the best of our abilities."
Spielman said the pause is bittersweet because even though a small number of "our precious people came home today — they have a long road ahead — but as we know, another 220 people are still being held by Hamas."
"We're waging this two-pronged project," he said. "One is the war on Hamas, to destroy Hamas, and the other is to bring home our people, and this pause is the reality of what it's going to take to bring home our people at this stage."
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Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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