Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on Saturday night, restated his government’s position on ending the military operation against the Gaza-based terrorist group Hamas.
All Israeli hostages must be released in a single phase, Prime Minister Netanyahu said while opening a cabinet meeting. “We will agree to an agreement only if all the hostages are released in one phase and according to our terms,” he declared.
According to the Israeli leader, the military operation, which began in the wake of the October 7 massacre, will only end with the disarmament of Hamas’s terrorist force and the demilitarization of Gaza. “We insist that not only must Hamas be disarmed, but also that Israel will enforce the demilitarization of the Strip,” he added, listing his terms.
Despite Prime Minister Netanyahu’s efforts to negotiate a deal, Hamas has so far refused to release the remaining hostages while calling for a ‘permanent’ ceasefire and complete Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza.
The ceasefire without disarming Hamas will only invite future terror attacks on Israel, the prime minister noted. The Gaza-based terrorist group “wants us to completely leave the entire Strip, from north to south,” he said. “This way it would be able to reorganize, rearm and attack us again.”
Prime Minister Netanyahu’s remarks were posted on his official website:
Our ongoing security control in the Strip is only one of our conditions for concluding the war, conditions that Hamas is refusing to accept. We insist that not only must Hamas be disarmed, but also that Israel will enforce the demilitarization of the Strip over time by continuous action against any attempt at rearmament and reorganization by any terrorist element whatsoever.Hamas is demanding the complete opposite. It wants us to completely leave the entire Strip, from north to south, including the Philadelphi Corridor that prevents smuggling and the security perimeter that protects our communities. This way it would be able to reorganize, rearm and attack us again. Hamas would again be able to come in its pickup trucks and with its monstrous murderers up to the fence and threaten Nir Oz, Kisufim and Sderot all over again.Those who are calling for an end to the war today without defeating Hamas, are not only hardening Hamas’s stance and pushing off the release of our hostages, they are also ensuring that the horrors of the October 7 will recur again and again, and that our sons and daughters will need to fight again and again in an endless war. Therefore, both to advance the release of our hostages and to ensure that Gaza will never again constitute a threat to Israel, we must complete the work and defeat Hamas.
With Hamas refusing to release the remaining hostages, the Israeli military operation in Gaza was entering “the next phase,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of the General Staff, Lt. General Eyal Zamir, announced on Sunday.
The focus of the renewed military offensive will be the Hamas-infested stronghold of Gaza City. “Today we are approving the plan for the next phase of the war,” Lt. General Zamir said. “We will maintain the momentum of Operation “Gideon’s Chariots” while focusing on Gaza City. We will continue to strike until the decisive defeat of Hamas, with the hostages always at the forefront of our minds.”
According to the IDF chief, the operation in Gaza will continue till Hamas is defeated decisively. “The IDF will deploy all its capabilities, on land, in the air, and at sea, to strike Hamas decisively,” he added. “[W]e will continue to enhance the strikes against Hamas in Gaza City until its decisive defeat.”
With the Iran-backed Houthis terrorist group continuing to fire missiles at Israel, the IDF struck terror targets in Yemen’s capital of Sanaa.
“The IDF struck from a distance of 2,000 kilometers from Israel, deep inside Yemen, targeting an energy infrastructure site that served the Houthi terrorist regime,” the military said in a statement on Sunday morning. “The strikes were conducted in response to repeated attacks by the Houthi terrorist regime against the State of Israel and its citizens, including the launching of surface-to-surface missiles and UAVs toward Israeli territory.”
Some media reports suggest that the operation was carried out by the Israeli Navy. Yemeni sources claim that Houthis’ top terrorist leadership was targeted in the strike, which hit a terrorist-controlled power plant.
“Local reports suggest that Houthi leaders were inside the plant’s control room when it was struck by missiles. Power went and a fire broke out,” the British newspaper Telegraph reported. “It is understood that the Israeli navy carried out the operation.”
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