«The Europeans are not under any illusions, the war will unfortunately be long. Israel is doing what it has said it would do for days. They will move forward». Thus in an interview with the Press the Minister of Defense Guido Crosetto. «Of course – he adds – Israel is not Hamas. The reaction, however harsh, is the reaction of a democratic and legal state that wants to attack Hamas terrorists, not the Palestinian population». “To those who tell me these days that Israel is becoming like Hamas,” he adds, “I reply: if Hamas had had Israel’s war potential in recent years, Israel would no longer exist and there would no longer be a Jew in Palestine.” «Up until now we have not yet seen clearly what happened» in Gaza «because access to the Internet has been paralysed. Israel blocked everything with a very strong cyber attack, but I believe that in the next few hours we can expect intense social activity from Hamas. We all know that wars are also fought on social media.”
«Anyone who knows Israel, having seen the massacres of defenseless civilians, knew that the reaction would be very harsh. Israel needs to show its strength because its very survival is linked to its ability to deter. They have taken into account the fact that they will pay a very high human and media price.” With respect to the positioning of international actors, Crosetto states: «Putin surprised me, but up to a certain point». Erdogan’s is «a much more difficult position to understand. I intend to visit Ankara very shortly to understand their position in person.”