Hamas is an idea, and you cannot destroy it — Israeli military spokesperson

Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari has criticised the country's political leadership when he described the rhetoric about destroying Hamas resistance group as "misleading" in an interview with Channel 13.

"The talk of destroying Hamas is like throwing dust in the public's eyes," Hagari told the station on Wednesday.

"Hamas is an idea. You cannot destroy an idea. The political leadership must find an alternative; otherwise, it (Hamas) will remain," he added.

Since October last year when Israel began its genocial war on besieged Gaza, hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has listed the destruction of Hamas resistance group as a key objective, despite skepticism from military analysts and Israeli observers about the feasibility of the goal.

Hagari discussed the army's announcement on June 8 about the release of four captives in a military operation in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. "It is not possible to release all hostages through military operations," he acknowledged.

In response, Netanyahu's office stated that the security Cabinet, chaired by the prime minister, "has defined the destruction of Hamas' military and governing capabilities as one of the goals of the war. The Israeli military, of course, is committed to this."

Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal onslaught on Gaza since an October 7 raid by Hamas on Israeli military sites and settlements that were once Arab farms and hamlets.

The hours-long attack and Israeli military's haphazard response including controversial Hannibal Directive resulted in the killing of more than 1,130 people.

Palestinian fighters took more than 250 hostages and presently 116 remain in Gaza, including 41 who the Israeli army says are dead, many of them killed in indiscriminate Israeli strikes.

Israel has since then killed nearly 37,400 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them women and children, and wounded more than 85,400 others. Some 10,000 Palestinians are feared dead under the debris of bombed homes while Israel has abducted more than 9,500 Palestinians.

More than eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

In occupied West Bank, Israeli forces and illegal Zionist settlers have killed more than 530 Palestinians and burned down multiple properties.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.