Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Nentanyahu stated on Sunday night that the most intense phase of the military offensive against the Gaza Strip “will soon come to an end,” but the war as such will not end until the Islamic Resistance Movement ( … Hamas) stop controlling the enclave.
«Phase three of the war is about to end. “It’s going to be very soon,” Netanyahu said in an interview with Channel 14 television, the first granted since the attack by Palestinian militias from Gaza against southern Israel on October 7.
Once this stage is completed, Israel will be able to send more forces north, to the border with Lebanon, to confront Hezbollah. “We are going to do it. Firstly and most importantly for defensive reasons and secondly so that the evacuees can return to their homes,” he noted.
To this end, he declared himself in favor of a diplomatic agreement, but warned that if it is not achieved he will resort to “other means.” Any pact must include “the physical distancing of Hezbollah from the border,” according to the Israeli leader.
In addition, Netanyahu highlighted the death on Saturday in an Israeli attack of what he described as ‘number 4’ of Hamas, Raad Saad. «Yesterday we may have killed ‘number 4’ of Hamas. “We are hitting them hard,” he said.
Netanyahu expressed his willingness to close an agreement that allows the return of the hostages, but warned that he is not willing to leave Hamas intact.
Regarding the future of the Gaza Strip, Netanyahu ruled out the Palestinian Authority regaining political control of the enclave instead of Hamas. Thus, he revealed that the Army proposed to him five months ago to hand over control to the Gazan clans, but then it was ruled out. Now there is a new proposal that he did not want to make public.
In any case, he does not plan to return to the colonies as the Israeli extreme right defends because “it would not be realistic” and it would also not serve the objectives.
Political conflict
On the other hand, he reproached Benjamin Gantz for leaving the war cabinet: «Gantz and Eisenkot have done something that should not be done. They have left the Government during a war with seven fronts. “It is something that should not be done,” he noted, while remembering that he has the support of the people. “We are in a democracy,” he stressed.
Also on a political level, Netanyahu commented on the refusal of some reservists to join the ranks in protest of judicial reform before the October 7 attack. The president described this gesture as a “disaster” for which he has blamed “the left.” “I already said then that they were endangering Israel,” he said. Thus, he considers that these protests were “an important factor” related to the October 7 attack, “but not the main factor.”
Thus, he defended the continuity of his right-wing and extreme right-wing government because the alternative is “a left-wing coalition” that would “create a Palestinian State.”
After the interview, the Minister of National Security, the far-right Itamar Ben Gvir, once again defended Jewish settlements as a future solution for the Gaza Strip.
«Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and encouraging voluntary emigration of the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip is realistic and the path towards the concept of absolute victory. Just as we settled in Israel after 1967, we will be able to do so again in the Gaza Strip after 2024,” he added.
Instead, the opposition leader, centrist Yair Lapid, has questioned Netanyahu’s ability to govern. “I recommend watching Netanyahu’s interview on Channel 14. Judge for yourself if he is capable of leading a country in crisis,” he argued.
The Association of Families of Israeli Hostages in Gaza has also reacted, pointing out that ending the war in Gaza without achieving the return of the hostages is an “unprecedented national failure” and a renunciation of the declared objectives of the war as such, according to the Israeli press.
Netanyahu would thus be “abandoning” “120 kidnapped people”, which means failing to fulfill his moral, State obligation towards his own citizens. «We are not going to allow the Government to evade its commitment to our loved ones. Netanyahu has to bring them all back,” the group stressed.
The prime minister’s office has had to respond to this criticism and has stressed that the war will not end until the destruction of Hamas and the return of all the hostages. “Netanyahu has made it clear that we are not going to leave Gaza until we recover the 120 hostages, both alive and dead,” he stressed.
He also recalled that “Hamas is the one who is against the agreement, not Israel,” after Netanyahu’s words contradicted the Israeli proposal for an agreement outlined by Joe Biden. The initiative includes a provisional ceasefire in a first phase that in the second would lead to “a sustainable calm with the permanent cessation of military operations and hostilities.”
