Israel is determined to bring all the hostages home, and is willing to end the war if Hamas agrees to Israel’s terms, says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a lengthy video statement from Washington, adding that he told hostage families that last night, APA reports citing Times of Israel.
“I told them that we are currently trying to achieve the release of half of the hostages, both alive and dead, in exchange for a temporary ceasefire of 60 days,” he says. “At the beginning of this ceasefire, negotiations will be entered into to end the war permanently. That is, a permanent ceasefire. In order for us to achieve this, this must be done under the minimum conditions that we have set: Hamas lays down its weapons, Gaza is demilitarized, Hamas no longer has any governmental or military capabilities. These are our basic conditions.”
“If this can be achieved through negotiations — that’s great. If it is not achieved through negotiations in 60 days, we will achieve it in other ways; by using force, the force of our heroic army,” he says, after speaking at a memorial service for two embassy employees who were murdered in May.
Netanyahu says that he hears the questions about why the war in Gaza is taking so long.
“First of all, this is a war zone that no army in the world has faced,” he explains. “And thanks to the heroism of the fighters, thanks to the sacrifice of the fallen, thanks to the creativity, we dismantled most of Hamas’s military capabilities. But not all of them. There are still thousands of fighters there with weapons. And we want to act, again, with a combination of diplomacy and military force, and military force if diplomacy doesn’t work, to complete the mission.”
If Israel’s goals are achieved diplomatically, that’s good, says Netanyahu. “But one way or another, they will be achieved.”
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