„I believe there are still about 70 hostages alive and we will make sure that they take home”. This was stated by H.E. Yosef Levi Sfari, ambassador of Israel to our country, in the extraordinary edition of the program “Offensive with Ljubo Ognyanov” on NOVA NEWS. Today marks one year since the attack by “Hamas” against Israel, in which about 1,200 people died and more than 250 were kidnapped.
„The Israeli military forces are still finding information about the lives of the hostages taken on October 7. For example, today they announced that one of them, whom we thought was alive, was actually killed on October 7 and his body was taken by the terrorists,” explained the ambassador.
The recovery of the rescued is a long and complicated process, the ambassador explained.
„ Some of them still have families in captivity, others – were killed", explained the former Yosef Levi Sfari. “The process is long, it also includes a medical condition. Some have undergone operations in captivity, even without anesthesia. In other cases, we have witness statements of sexual assault. You can imagine, it won't be easy”, commented the ambassador.
He explained that the film “Cries before the silence”, created by an American journalist, within 60 minutes tells about the horror of sexual assaults.
„Today we uploaded it to Youtube, it is also available in Bulgarian. These are witnesses who talk about their experiences related to sexual assault. "The world must know what really happened," said His Excellency. Safaris.
Asked if it was clear yet how Israeli intelligence and security services allowed this to happen, the ambassador said: “This is the day on which Jews have suffered the most victims since the time of the Holocaust. There is no other way to describe this than as a mistake. The army's mistake, our government's mistake. We owe it to our people, to the victims, to do a full investigation into this matter. We believe now is the right time. We are still in a military conflict. The same people who are now struggling are the ones who have to answer questions. They recognize responsibility and take it. The time will come to do that investigation. And now we have some answers, but they are not enough, said HE. Safaris.
„Wars have rules. When you fight terrorists, they have no rules. They work according to their religious beliefs," the ambassador also commented.
Regarding the operation in the Gaza Strip and criticism of Israel over the number of casualties, he said: “How do you fight terrorists who hide behind their own civilians? Some critics are right to see challenges in this. They are very different from any other war we have seen in the past. We are talking about territory connected by hundreds of kilometers of tunnels, the likes of which no army has ever seen. Some of these critics are really not fair. One of the questions our allies must ask themselves is whether they would have handled it differently. Did they do better in Iraq, Afghanistan, in Serbia? The answer is: No. And this is not my answer, but the experts”.
Asked what is known about Yahya Sinwar, head of “Hamas” at the moment, the ambassador said, “As far as we know Sinuar is still alive and surrounded by the hostages. There is no dispute about that. There is information that in the past the army was able to reach him, but acted carefully so as not to endanger the hostages.
„Our main goal is to prevent “Hamas” to operate in Gaza and rescue the hostages at the same time. Our goal of eliminating Sinuar will be achieved one way or another. But the main goal is how we deal with the problem in Gaza. A few hours ago, rockets were fired from Gaza at Tel Aviv. A year after the start of the war, they still have the ability to fire rockets at Tel Aviv. "It's not every day, they don't have the same abilities as before, but from time to time they have them," commented H.P. Safaris.
When asked if he could confirm the information that appeared in Arab media that Hassan Nasrallah's successor, Hashem Safieddin, had been liquidated, the ambassador said he could not. “There is no official information that he has been eliminated,” said the ambassador.
When asked if he could confirm the information that appeared in the Arab media that the successor of Hassan Nasrallah - Hashem Safiedin, had been liquidated, the ambassador replied that he could not.
He added that after the missiles fired by Iran, “there will undoubtedly be a counterattack”. “You can't attack a democratic sovereign state with a 180 or as they said – 400 ballistic missiles, and no response. An answer will come, said H.E. Yosef Levi Sfari.