Israel will have security responsibility in the Gaza Strip for an indefinite period following the war, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed in an interview with the ABC network overnight on Monday.
“We have seen what happens when Israel does not have the security responsibility,” he said, referring to the October 7 massacre. “When we do not have this security responsibility what we have is an eruption of Hamas terror on a scale we could not imagine.”
Netanyahu further reiterated his vow to not agree to any ceasefire until the return of the 240 hostages kept by Hamas in Gaza.
Netanyahu: No ceasefire until return of hostages
According to Netanyahu, it is possible to talk about “small ceasefires, an hour here and an hour there, there have been them in the past, I suppose, we will examine the circumstances to allow humanitarian goods to be brought in, or for our hostages, individual hostages to leave, but I don’t think there will be a ceasefire.”
During the interview with presenter David Muir on the World News Tonight program, the prime minister emphasized that “I think this [ceasefire] will delay the war effort, it will delay our effort to get our hostages out, because the only thing that works on the criminals of Hamas is the military pressure we exert on it.”
Last week, the prime minister held a briefing for the foreign media, where he said that a ceasefire is not on the agenda.
“Just as the United States would not agree to a cease-fire after the bombing of Pearl Harbor or September 11, Israel will not agree to a cease-fire after the massacre. The call for a cease-fire is a call for Israel to surrender to Hamas, barbarism and terrorism, it will not happen.”
Speaking of potential disagreements with US President Joe Biden, Netanyahu told ABC that Biden is a “great supporter of Israel…we have to stand together and we stand together. We agree that we have to provide humanitarian assistance, we are doing it. We do not want to give Hamas the ability to endanger our soldiers.”
Asked if he bears personal responsibility for the massacre, the prime minister noted that “tough questions are going to be asked and I am gonna be the first to answer it. The responsibility of the government is to protect the people and that clearly was not met,” Netanyahu said.
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