Israel is not the stumbling block to a hostage deal; Hamas is, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday as he pushed back at US President Joe Biden’s charge that he needed to do more to bring him the remaining 133 captives.
Israel is not the one preventing a deal. Hamas is the one obstructing an agreement,” Netanyahu charged at the start of the weekly government meeting.
He spoke Cairo prepared to hold another round of hostage talks that would include CIA Director William Burns as well as Israeli, Egyptian, and Qatari officials.
Hamas has demanded that Israel halt the war and withdraw the IDF from Gaza, while Israel has insisted that it must complete its military mission to destroy the terror group and oust it from the enclave.
Israel has been under increased pressure from the international community to end the war, irrespective of whether the hostages are freed.
The US has continued to push for a pause to the war in exchange for the release of some 40 of the hostages.
I made it clear to the international community: there will be no ceasefire without the return of the hostages. It just won’t happen.
“This is the policy of the Israeli government,” Netanyahu stated. He added, “I welcome the fact that the Biden administration made it clear the other day that this is still its position as well.
Hamas hopes that the pressure from outside and inside will make Israel surrender to these extreme demands. It will not happen. Israel is ready for a deal, Israel is not ready to surrender.
Instead of international pressure being directed at Israel, which only causes Hamas to harden its position, the pressure of the international community should be directed against Hamas. This will advance the release of the abductees.
He spoke, however, as the IDF suddenly withdrew all of Division 98 from Khan Yunis in southern Gaza on Sunday. The Nahal brigade and portions of Brigade 401 will remain in the northern and central parts of the enclave.
To destroy the remaining Hamas battalions in Rafah, the IDF would have to send additional troops back into Gaza.
The move, which effectively creates a pause to the war, came days after Biden warned Netanyahu that the US would change its Gaza policy unless Israel took tangible steps to reduce Palestinian civilian fatalities.
Netanyahu determined to destroy Hamas
Netanyahu told his government that he was determined to destroy Hamas and return the hostages, as he underscored the fact that Iran was behind the Hamas-led October 7 attack against Israel, in which over 1,200 people were killed and another 253 seized as hostages.
“We have been attacked on many fronts by Iran’s affiliates – Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, militias in Iraq and Syria, and other attacks as well.
Anyone who harms us or plans to harm us – we will hurt them,” he stated, noting that this was true for Israel’s enemies close to home or far away.
“The absolute majority of the people are united in the need to continue fighting until victory,” Netanyahu said as he called for national unity.
He also condemned a ramming attack on Saturday night, in which an Israeli driver injured five demonstrators in Tel Aviv.
Netanyahu said he condemned “any manifestation of violence within us – riots and violations of the law, trampling on demonstrators or attacking policemen and wild incitement,” including on social networks.
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