National Security Advisor Mike Waltz declared Thursday on Fox News that the U.S. is committed to the total dismantlement of Hamas.
Hamas paraded the caskets of an Israeli mother and her two children in Khan Younis, Gaza, cheered on by crowds, saying, without evidence, that Israeli missiles caused their deaths during an ongoing hostage exchange amid a 15-month war sparked by a Hamas massacre. During an appearance on “The Ingraham Angle,” Waltz said that members of Hamas were the ones who executed the family.
“I’ll just let everyone know that sadly and tragically, we thought that that family perhaps had been killed by an errant bombing. In fact, we now know that Hamas executed them. These are twin children,” Waltz told Laura Ingraham. “These are babies. This was their mother. This is a sick terrorist organization, no different than ISIS. And we cannot have Gaza ruled by a terrorist organization. Hamas has to be destroyed.”
Waltz said that there are still ongoing efforts to negotiate the release of hostages, but he said there’s a need for a decisive response.
“We’ll continue to enter into some type of negotiation to get as many hostages out. But at the end of the day, Gaza will be ruled by Hamas no more, who has repeatedly said their full intent is to have more October 7th’s, more attacks,” Waltz said. “They fully intend to continue to attack Israel if allowed to remain in place. And we stand with Israel in making sure that doesn’t happen.”
Waltz said that Gaza cannot remain under Hamas’ rule, especially given their continued threats and actions against Israel.
“The idea that they could continue to live there, we don’t have the video for some reason, but I mean, it’s the most depressing, depraved video of Hamas and children clapping at the bodies of these small children being removed from where they were being kept,” Waltz said. “I mean, applauding, clapping, cheering. That’s who we’re dealing with. That’s what they’ve done to their children in Gaza. And the idea that any of these people could remain is ludicrous, completely ludicrous.”
Waltz then criticized movements on U.S. college campuses, which he said show support for Hamas, linking them to a rise in anti-Semitism.
“But let’s even go back, rewind the clock back last year when you had people in our college campuses chanting ‘From the river to the sea,’ the anti-Semitism that we saw, you know, naked and bare in front of the world and cheering on an organization that would do things like this, a terrorist group that has radicalized the next generation as well,” Waltz said.
Columbia University experienced one of the earliest outbreaks of violent anti-Israel protests in the country, leading to hundreds of arrests and threats of expulsion.
“What is crystal clear is Hamas has got to go. Their leadership has to go. And we are working with the Israelis to do just that,” Waltz added.
An Instagram video uploaded by a journalist in Gaza shows four masked militants placing a casket inside a Red Cross aid vehicle. Accompanying them, an individual adorned with symbols of Palestinian Islamic Jihad records the event with a camera. In another video from the same uploader, large groups of adults and children are seen waving and cheering as Hamas fighters pass by in trucks, brandishing their weapons.
Israel and Hamas have agreed to a temporary ceasefire, during which Israel will release dozens of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for civilian hostages held by Hamas. Hamas has openly vowed to replicate the attacks of Oct. 7, which resulted in the most significant loss of Jewish lives since the Holocaust.
Featured Image Credit: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America
