Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, who is one of the three members “war cabinet” of the Israel’s emergency unity government, has said that Palestinian militant group Hamas will be “wiped out” off the face of the Earth. His remarks came in the first joint statement of the “war cabinet”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is also a member of the cabinet along with Opposition leader Benny Gantz, equated Hamas with Daesh – Islamic State group- and said the militant group will be destroyed.

“Hamas is Daesh (Islamic State group) and we will crush them and destroy them as the world has destroyed Daesh,” he said in a brief televised statement.

Earlier on Wednesday, Netanyahu and Opposition leader Gantz agreed to form an emergency unity government in view of the country’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The emergency unity government formed a “war cabinet” comprising Netayahu, Gants and Gallant. Two other senior Netanyahu government officials are also part of the cabinet as observers.

The development came amid Israel’s plan to launch a ground assault against Hamas in the Gaza Strip following the deadly October 7 attack, in which more than 1200 people, including Israeli women, children and soldiers were brutally murdered.

Hamas militants have also taken around 150 people, including foreign nationals, hostages after the brutal assault, termed “a massacre” by Israel.

In response, Israel declared a war and has been carrying out air strikes on Hamas targets across the Gaza Strip as Netayahu vowed “might vengeance”. Since Saturday, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air strikes in Gaza.

The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) have claimed to kill around 1,500 Hamas militants near the Gaza-Israel border who had either crossed or were trying to cross the high security fences.

Israel has also moved more than 3,00,000 reservists near the Gaza border to execute a mission given by the Israeli government. The mission is likely to be a ground assault but there has not been any official confirmation.

Israeli has claimed that Hamas has been using underground tunnels and bunkers to operate and the ground assault is needed to destroy that.