Live Update 
From the Liveblog of
Monday, August 25, 2025
From the Liveblog of
Monday, August 25, 2025
Israel rolling ahead with Gaza City takeover to free hostages, beat Hamas, PM tells senator
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleNava Freiberg is The Times of Israel's deputy diplomatic correspondent.
US Sentator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), left, and Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on August 25, 2025. (Haim Zach / GPO)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his security cabinet’s decision to order the military to take over Gaza City in the coming months is “unequivocal.”
“Israel will act with determination and strength to bring back all of its hostages and to defeat Hamas,” Netanyahu told US Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa in his Jerusalem office today, his office says in a statement.
Netanyahu also told Ernst, a Republican whom he previously hosted in April, that “these missions are intertwined.”
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