President Isaac Herzog Sunday evening met with Foreign Minister of the Netherlands, Caspar Veldkamp.

Ahead of the meeting President Herzog said: “We respect the support from your government. I think the fact that you’re here is an expression of friendship and support, because what we have seen in the last 24 hours is pure, barbaric evil, unprecedented evil. We have been attacked from various corners of our nation by pure terror. And the most sadistic of all is, of course, the killing, the brutal murder of six innocent civilians who were taken hostage to Gaza on 7th October. I think this exemplifies what we are dealing with.”

“I believe the whole attitude towards Hamas must change by the world community and by the interlocutors, by Arab nations, by intermediaries,” he added. “They all have to understand that Hamas is not a partner to anything. They simply refuse endlessly to move on and move towards a hostage deal. They are to blame for the horrific attacks on October 7, where they burned and butchered, raped and took hostage so many Israelis, innocent people, from their homes, and as we’ve seen now, they’ve treated hostages in the most brutal way. And now, of course, we see brutally murdered them. So I call upon world community – there has to be very firm decisions taken against Hamas all over the world.”

Image - Maayan Toaf/GPO