「日刊まにら新聞」ウェブ

Israel Ambassador to the Philippines Ilan Fluss expressed hope that his government is now in ''the final stage of stabilizing the situation'' as they are "slowly regaining full control" of the areas attacked by Hamas militants.

This was noted by Ilan Fluss, Israel Ambassador to the Philippines during the Bagong Pilipinas interview on Tuesday.

"We are now in the, hopefully, in the final stages of stabilizing the situation. We still have attempts to enter Israel through the border by air, by sea, by land," he said.

"We still have some pockets where there are still some terrorists inside Israel. Towns and villages, all of them have been cleared up of the terrorists. But still, there’s no total freedom at the moment there because we still have terrorists who are hiding in those places. We still have incidents," he added.

Fluss stressed that their government is "slowly regaining full control" over the conflict affected areas.

"We don’t have full control yet, but we have full control in the towns and villages. And there are still some, [who are] sort of hiding in the bushes and trees around, and we are trying to identify them. And at the same time, some are still trying to enter Israel, so we still have a few incidents, so it’s not full yet in control," he said.

Fluss said based on the latest data more than 900 Israelis killed while more than 2,600 have been injured.

"The numbers of the casualties are horrific, more than 900 Israelis killed and the number is growing by the hour because they’re still counting and trying to identify the incidents," he said.

"More than 2,600 have been injured and, again, the numbers are growing. The attacks against Israel are continuing. However, we are trying to regain control and prepare ourselves for the next stage," he added.

Fluss said the next stage which includes the bombardments of Hamas infrastructure has started.

"We’ll see the next stage, which we’ve already started, with the Israeli Air Force which bombards the infrastructure of Hamas. And they will see what will come next because this is something for the IDF, not for us here to discuss," he said.

"But the next stage will probably be eliminating all infrastructure of the terror organization of Hamas in order to prevent any future terror attacks," said Fluss. Robina Asido/DMS