MK Miri Regev
MK Miri RegevFlash 90

MK Miri Regev (Likud) on Sunday issued a warning to Hamas’s former Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh, after he threatened that Hamas would resume the rocket attacks against Israel.

In a sermon he gave this past Friday, Haniyeh declared that Hamas would resume the rocket fire towards Israel on September 25 unless Israel ends its naval blockade of the coastal strip by that date.

In response to the threat, Regev said, "I say from here to Haniyeh - go ahead and try us. Just as we severely hurt the Hamas terror infrastructure we will not hesitate to strike Hamas again, and you Haniyeh will not be immune."

"It's no secret that I thought the ground offensive should have been expanded," she continued, "but I'm sure that our prime minister will succeed in bringing security to the residents of the south, and will change the rules of the game.”

In his sermon on Friday, Haniyeh also declared that Hamas is not willing to discuss the possibility of demilitarizing weapons from its "military wing," the Al-Qassam Brigades, or other terrorist organizations operating in Gaza.

"Weapons are the holy light of the sanctity of the struggle and the land issue, and if they want to demilitarize its weapons, we will only agree if the occupier is also demilitarized and its leaves our land," Haniyeh said, likely referring to the entire state of Israel.

"As long as there is an occupation, there will be a struggle," he added.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman acknowledged on Sunday that Israel’s demand that Gaza be demilitarized was not likely to be realized.

Speaking to Kol Yisrael public radio, Liberman said that demanding Gaza demilitarize was “unrealistic at this time, although the issue will remain on the table.”

He added that Israel must not give up in its efforts to dislodge Hamas from running Gaza and must work to remove the terror group from its control of the territory, even though polls show that Hamas has become much more popular among Gazans after Operation Protective Edge's conclusion.