From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, July 17, 2024
‘Put pressure on Sinwar, not me’: In heated Knesset session, Netanyahu defends management of Gaza war
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defends his record during a stormy Knesset session, insisting that Israel is “making systematic progress toward achieving the goals of the war: the release of the hostages, the elimination of Hamas and the guarantee that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel.”
Speaking during a so-called 40 signatures debate — one the opposition can call once a month and which the prime minister is legally obliged to attend — on the “government of abandonment,” Netanyahu hits back at critics, arguing that Israel is achieving its goals in Gaza through a “combination of political and military pressure.”
“Hamas is indeed under pressure because we are eliminating its commanders, thousands of its terrorists, because we have entered Rafah and [the] Philadelphi [Corridor] and we are holding it by the throat,” he says.
Saying that he has resisted “enormous pressures at home and abroad,” Netanyahu declares that despite critics in the Knesset and media allegedly claiming that it is impossible to defeat Hamas, Israel is “on the way to absolute victory.”
“We are going to eliminate this neo-Nazi government in Gaza, to eliminate the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas and we are progressing there step by step,” he says. “We were told that Hamas will not agree to release hostages without us first agreeing to end the war. Suddenly it agrees. The more we persist in the pressure – it will give up more and more. And this is the only way to free” the hostages.
“You would give [Muhammad] Deif a gas agreement in Gaza as you did in Lebanon,” Netanyahu charges, referring to a deal that demarcated a maritime border between Israel and Lebanon that was signed under now-Opposition Leader Yair Lapid’s government in 2022.
Muhammad Deif was the commander of Hamas’s military wing and is believed to have likely been killed in a recent Israeli airstrike.
“We are determined to win the war and return all our hostages. The key is pressure, pressure and more pressure. The pressure I’m talking about should be directed at [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar. Your pressure on me will not help,” Netanyahu concludes, dismissing calls to establish a state commission of inquiry into the government’s failure on October 7 now, while the war is ongoing.
