A tentative hostage deal is on the table that reportedly would require a short pause in Israel's military action in the Gaza Strip against Hamas terrorists.
Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a spokesman for Israel Defense Forces, told Newsmax on Tuesday such a pause does not mean the Jewish state will be dropping its guard elsewhere against terrorist groups such as Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon and Houthi rebels in Yemen, or even Tehran itself.
"Not against Hezbollah attacks from Lebanon, not against the Houthi attacks in the area of Yemen and nothing else," Conricus told "The Record with Greta Van Susteren." "Operations will continue in Judea and Samaria against Hamas infrastructure there. We will continue to arrest Hamas operatives there, and we will continue to defend ourselves on all our fronts against whatever aggression will come, whether it is from far away Iran or from close to our borders."
There have been reports Hamas does not control all of the more than 200 hostages, including some Americans, taken during their Oct. 7 terrorist attack in southern Israel. Another terror group, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, reportedly holds a small number.
But Conricus said do not be fooled: Hamas controls all of them.
"We are certain that Hamas has control over the hostages," Conricus said. "They have been trying to send a message that they don't really have control, and they're trying to buy time by claiming not to be aware of the whereabouts of all of them.
"I think that is another Hamas lie. They've had more than 46 days to establish the presence of all of the hostages that they took from Israel to Gaza, so I wouldn't read too much into it. What we're focused on is military operations on the ground, dismantling their infrastructure, and whenever the Israeli government will tell us that they need something else, we would, of course, implement that to the letter."
Israel is in control of most of northern Gaza after beginning its ground operation, dismantling Hamas' vast network of tunnels, including those that are beneath Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Israel has long claimed Hamas has bases at hospitals such as Shifa or other public places such as schools to launch attacks against Israel, using civilians as cover to prevent retaliation.
"As the days go by, we make more and more exposures of the Hamas infrastructure, their military infrastructure underneath Shifa," he said. "We're going to show that to the world as well and to expose exactly what we found. We were able to open a few of the blast doors and we are then going to expose what is behind those blast doors.
"There is nothing benign to any of the infrastructure that we found underneath Shifa. It is all military. It is all made and paid for by Hamas and it serves their military purposes, just as we have been claiming all along."
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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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