Israel's military forces will hunt Hamas terrorists in Gaza "by all means necessary," former Israeli U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon told Newsmax on Wednesday.
More than 1,200 people were killed and 2,700 wounded in Israel during the Hamas terrorist attack last weekend.
Israel, which has conducted retaliatory airstrikes into Gaza, has vowed to escalate its response with a ground offensive.
"We're very determined after we revealed the horrible pictures of the victims and yesterday, you know, was a very hard day for us, when we found the bodies of babies who were ... and burned alive," Danon told "Wake Up America" co-hosts Rob Finnerty and Alison Maloni. "The last time we witnessed [this] was there during the Holocaust.
"So indeed, we are getting ready to retaliate. We have called the reserves, and I cannot tell you when, but I can guarantee you that we will go after Hamas and we will do it by all means necessary. We will come from the sea, from the air, from the land. We will chase them. We will hunt them, and we will kill them."
Finnerty asked Danon about civilians in Palestine. With Egypt, to the south, having closed its border with Gaza, Palestinians seeking to flee seemingly have no place to go.
"Well first of all, it was an unprovoked attack against Israel from Gaza. We have no other choice," Danon said. "You know, the militants are hiding in Gaza. That's why we're going to find them in Gaza.
"We advise the civilian population to move out to different areas. You know, Gaza is about 60 kilometers, about 40 miles, so you can still move from one place to another. And we are trying to convince or to give the indication to the population to move away. Move out. Don't be next to Hamas headquarters or Hamas terrorists because we will go there and find them."
Danon added that Israeli officials expect to "see in the next few days that we should see the migration of population within Gaza moving to different neighborhoods and getting away from Hamas headquarters."
"We don't have an intention to hurt the civilian population," he said. "Unlike Hamas — they target civilians. We try to minimize the civilian casualties. But you know if the Hamas will use the civilians as human shields, we will not hold our power. We will have to go and fight the Hamas."
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