Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that the war against Hamas will not stop because of a ceasefire to free hostages held by the Palestinian Islamist movement.
“We will not stop the war after the ceasefire,” the head of Israel’s government told his ministers at the start of a board meeting.
Netanyahu alluded to the “nonsense” broadcast in recent hours about the end of hostilities resulting from the release of the hostages, stating, quoted by the Israeli daily Haaretz: “I would like to make it clear that we are at war and we will. continue the war until we achieve all our objectives: eliminate Hamas, recover all hostages and missing persons and ensure that there will be no threat to Israel in Gaza.”
After separate meetings of the war and security cabinets, the prime minister assured that all Israeli authorities support an agreement on the release of hostages and continued to insist to his colleagues that the agreement being negotiated with Hamas is “the right decision” to make.
According to Netanyahu, United States President Joe Biden helped “improve the proposed framework (…) to accommodate more hostages at a lower cost.”
The hostages’ families demanded the release of all prisoners and the far-right wing of the ruling coalition has already spoken out against the deal.
Israel’s executive branch is expected to vote on a plan that would suspend Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip for several days in exchange for the release of hostages held by Hamas.
Hamas predicted that a Qatar-brokered deal could be reached “in the coming hours.”
Netanyahu believed that intelligence efforts will continue during the pause, allowing the military to prepare for the next phases of the conflict
On October 7, fighters from the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) – in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007 and classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel – carried out an unprecedented attack on Israelis. since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, which has left 1,200 dead, mostly civilians, around 5,000 injured and more than 200 hostages.
In retaliation, Israel declared a war to “eradicate” Hamas, which began with cuts to food, water, electricity and fuel supplies in the Gaza Strip and daily bombing, followed by a ground offensive around Gaza City.
The war between Israel and Hamas, which entered its 46th day today and continues to threaten to spread across the Middle East, has so far left more than 14,000 dead in the Gaza Strip, most of them civilians, and more than 33,000 injured, according to the latest report from local authorities, and 1.7 million displaced, according to the UN.
Source: DN
