Speaking at the EU Parliament in Brussels on Wednesday, Cohen said that Israel was attacked not only by Hamas but by other militias in the region that are supported by Iran, which he called “the world number one financer of terror”.

Cohen, during his emotional speech, also showed two minutes of brutal images said to be from Hamas videos filmed during the October 7 attack, overlaid with piano music.

“The 7th of October was the worst day of the state of Israel and for the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” he said.

Since October 7, the Israeli military has been bombarding Gaza in retaliation for the Hamas attack that killed more than 1,400 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to Israeli authorities.

According to the Hamas-run health ministry, the death toll in Gaza has surpassed 10,500 people, mainly civilians and thousands of them children. 

Justifying Israel’s intense bombardment of Gaza as necessary to root out Hamas “terrorism”, the foreign minister said, “This is not just the war of the state of Israel. This is the war of the free world.”

“We need to win this war in order to ensure that the West will not be next since terrorism, it’s like a cancer.”

Cohen also said, “We are not attacked only by the Hamas and by the Islamic Jihad. We are also attacked by the Hezbollah in our northern border and also by the Huthis in Yemen.”

“There is one thing that connects them: Iran. Iran is the world number one financer of terror,” he added.

Earlier, Israel had said that the goal of its military operation in Gaza is to eradicate Hamas.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had said that when the war is over, Israel would assume “overall security” of Gaza.

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Updated: 08 Nov 2023, 10:57 PM IST