According to Michael Freeman, the Israeli ambassador to Nigeria, both foreigners and Nigerians living there are safe.
Over 900 people were killed inside Israel as a result of a devastating onslaught by Hamas militants who stormed the border fence on Saturday morning while being bombarded by rocket fire.
Israel’s heavy air and artillery bombardment of Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip in retaliation has resulted in at least 687 deaths in the coastal outpost thus far.
Freeman claimed Nigerians are safe during a news conference on Tuesday in Abuja and said that the Israeli government would take all precaution to prevent casualties.
The envoy stated, “Everyone is safe in Israel. Nigerians are safe. We will do everything we can to avoid civilian casualties. But the civilians will get killed. We should be prepared for that.”
He also described Saturday’s attack by Hamas as the gravest since the Holocaust.
Describing the attack, Freeman said Hamas is a terror group that wants to wipe out the Israelis, but said Israel will terminate every one of them.
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“Hamas are a terror group that has no mercy and has decided that they want to slaughter the Israelis and destroy the State of Israel.
“Nearly a thousand Israelis were murdered in one day. That was the gravest number of Jews killed in one day since the Holocaust.
“But, do you know it is not only Israelis? They killed Arabs, they killed Israeli-Arabs, they killed others from different countries,” Freeman explained.
The ambassador added that Israel has begun a war against Hamas, stating that it was not against the Palestinians, Muslims, or Arabs, but solely against Hamas.
He noted the Israeli forces will eliminate Hamas so that there will not be a repeat of this in Israel or any other country.
“There is no justification for Hamas to attack. They have no right to hold children and women. Their major headquarters is under a hospital in Gaza. We are focusing on ensuring that everybody is safe, and how we are going to do that is to eliminate Hamas,” Freeman said.
