LONDON: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has criticized the army’s spokesperson, Daniel Hagari, for saying that Hamas will continue to exist in the Gaza Strip for the next five years.

According to local media reports, Netanyahu was angered by Hagari’s public remarks, which seemed inconsistent with the stance of the prime minister’s office.

“Israel is planning a long war against Hamas,” Hagari said in an interview with the American ABC network on Monday, adding that he believes that “Hamas will remain with the ambition to be a terror organization” for years to come.

“Will you and me be talking five years from now about Hamas as a terror organization in Gaza?” Hagari asked the host, then continued: “The answer is yes.”

Reports from Israel’s Channel 14 indicated that Netanyahu criticized Hagari in private, saying: “There are also members of Hamas in the West Bank, but there is no Hamas rule. There are neo-Nazis in Germany, but there is no Nazi rule.”

Netanyahu claimed that “Israel will eliminate Hamas’s rule and will not allow it to control the Gaza Strip again and threaten Israel from there.”

This is not the first instance of Hagari diverging from the prime minister’s office.

Late last month, he told Channel 13 that to truly achieve Israel’s goal of eliminating Hamas in Gaza, an alternative must be introduced.

Hagari described Hamas as an “idea” rooted in the hearts of Gazans, stating that “anyone who thinks it can be eliminated is wrong.”

Netanyahu and the Israeli army issued a clarification following Hagari’s comments, stating that the army is “committed to achieving the goals of the war as defined by the Cabinet” and has been working on this “throughout the war, day and night, and will continue to do so.”

Hagari’s remarks have intensified public debate in Israel regarding the feasibility of Israel’s goal to “destroy Hamas,” with many military analysts and observers expressing skepticism about achieving this objective.