Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reaffirmed this Wednesday that Israel will continue “the war until the end”, diluting hopes of a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, the day negotiations with the Islamist movement Hamas resumed.
“We continue the war until the end. It will continue until Hamas is eliminated, until victory,” Netanyahu insisted in a video message.
“Whoever thinks we will stop is not connected to reality. We will not stop fighting until we achieve all the objectives we set for ourselves: the elimination of Hamas, the release of our hostages and the elimination of the threat from Gaza,” he stressed. .
The words of the Israeli prime minister were announced on the same day that negotiations for a new temporary truce and the release of more hostages were reactivated in Cairo.
The leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniya, traveled this Wednesday from Qatar to Egypt to participate in the talks, mediated by those two countries, where it is assumed that the head of the “secret” Mossad, who met this week in Europe, will also travel. He will participate. with the Emir of Qatar and CIA Director William Burns to discuss the possibility of a temporary ceasefire.
A senior Hamas official stated this Wednesday that the Islamist group “will not participate in Israel’s game” for a new release of Israeli hostages, which would be followed by “another wave of mass murders” in the Gaza Strip.
Ghazi Hamad confirmed, in statements to the Al Jazeera television network, that “some people” are trying to negotiate a truce in the fighting, although he maintained that it is not in the interest of the Palestinian group.
“Israel will play the hostage card and then begin another wave of mass murders and massacres against our people,” Hamad said.
“We will not participate in this game,” he stated, although he stressed that the Islamist group “is willing to negotiate with everyone,” once the end of the conflict is reached, and to assume “an important commitment” that includes the release of Israeli and Palestinian hostages in Israel’s prisons.
Since the week of truce ended on December 1, resulting in the release of 105 Israeli and foreign hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners, Netanyahu has not been in favor of dialogue and has insisted on the military option.
However, the fact that Israeli troops mistakenly killed three hostages last Friday, whom they mistook for members of Hamas, in the same week in which they captured the bodies of five other people kidnapped in the Gaza Strip, Internal pressure has increased for the Israeli leader to agree to negotiate again.
“We are attacking Hamas with fire, hellfire. Everywhere, even today. We also attack its collaborators from near and far,” Netanyahu said of the war, which caused 134 casualties in the Israeli ranks.
“All Hamas terrorists, from the first to the last, are mortal. They have only two options: surrender or die,” he added.
Following an unprecedented attack by Hamas that caused around 1,200 deaths and around 240 kidnappings in Israeli territory on October 7, the Tel Aviv army has since carried out a powerful air, land and sea offensive in the Gaza Strip .
The military operation has already left more than 19,000 dead and more than 51,000 injured, most of them women, children and the elderly, according to figures from local authorities in Gaza, controlled by the Palestinian Islamist group, in addition to 1.9 million displaced people. people, 85% of the enclave’s total population, according to the UN.
Source: TSF
