Israeli leaders vowed Tuesday to continue fighting to destroy Hamas after a pause, which is part of a deal in which the terror group will free between 50 and 80 female and child hostages in exchange for a lull in the fighting.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, in a statement announcing the deal:
I would like to reiterate: The war is continuing and the war will continue until we achieve all of our goals – Eliminating Hamas, returning all of our hostages and assuring that the day after Hamas, Gaza will no longer threaten Israel, that there will be no other element that supports terrorism, educates its children for terrorism and threatens the State of Israel. With G-d’s help, we will do it and we will succeed – and together we will win.
Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant added:
As a result of the decision taken about a month ago to intensify our ground operations, to enter [Gaza] and to increase the pressure on Hamas, there is now a chance to create a plan that will lead to the release of hostages. I view the release of hostages first and foremost as an issue related to values – a moral issue, an issue that points to the [unwritten] agreement between the State, the government and its citizens. All members of the cabinet, all the members of the IDF, ISA, and Mossad, everyone who is working on the issue of the hostages and missing persons – is dedicating all their time, soul and energy to this issue, day and night.
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At the same time, without continuing [military] pressure, there will be no chance of bringing [home] additional hostages. Therefore, upon my request and that of the defense establishment, the government has included in its decision, the unequivocal demand that immediately after we have exhausted this phase, all operations by the IDF [Israel Defense Forces], ISA [Israel Security Agency] and all the security forces, will continue in full force – first in order to defeat Hamas, and secondly, in order to create the necessary conditions to bring home additional hostages.
The deal was the result of several weeks of negotiations, with Qatar and the United States acting as intermediaries. Israel will cease air and land operations in Gaza for four days, and Hamas will deliver 12-13 hostages to Israel per day. Hamas will be able to extend the pause by another day for each ten additional hostages it releases, up to a maximum of ten days total.
Israel also agreed to free female and teenage terror convicts from its own prisons — 50 at first, and 300 at the conclusion of Hamas’s delivery of hostage.
Netanyahu has said that the war has three goals: to destroy Hamas, to free the hostages, and to create a new administration for Gaza that will not allow it to threaten Israeli communities.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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