According to the Israeli prime minister, Israel’s “ongoing security control in the Strip is only one of our conditions for concluding the war, conditions that Hamas is refusing to accept”
TEL AVIV – A ceasefire in the Gaza Strip without defeating Hamas will lead to an “endless war,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
“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,” he said as quoted by his office.
According to Netanyahu, Israel’s “ongoing security control in the Strip is only one of our conditions for concluding the war, conditions that Hamas is refusing to accept.” “We (Israel – TASS) 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,” he stressed.
Hamas, in his words, demands “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,” he stated. “This way it would be able to reorganize, rearm and attack us again.”
“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,” he emphasized.
“This is exactly the decision that the Security Cabinet made last week. We are determined to implement it, and I stand by the IDF, the security forces and the citizens of Israel,” he added.
BY: The Times Union – TASS
