Netanyahu denies Hamas executed hostages due to his insistence on core demands

Answering questions from reporters, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel last week intercepted all of the drones Hezbollah fired at Israel last week. That’s not the end of the matter, he says, vowing to restore security to the north.

He rejects the assertion that the six hostages murdered by Hamas in Gaza last week were killed because of his insistence on sticking to his core demands for a deal. “We didn’t manage to extricate them. We were very close. It’s terrible,” he says.

“But it didn’t happen because of that decision [on the Philadelphi Corridor.] “It happened, first, because they (Hamas) don’t want a deal,” he says.

He also decries leaks from cabinet meetings and says angrily that “it is not okay that the military censor allows it. It’s not okay that there isn’t a polygraph law because we are stuck with an attorney general who won’t allow it. We must find legislation that will get over that problem.”

Turning to the terms of the hostage deal, Netanyahu says he is willing to agree to a 42-day lull in the fighting in Gaza. He says nobody is more committed to freeing the hostages than he is, and says he was wounded when freeing hostages. “Nobody should preach to me about this.”

“The formula I agreed to talks about a first stage of 42 days — after which we can go back to fighting, of course, if a solution is not found in negotiations. It’s our decision, I insisted on it. And if a decision is made for the long-term, and a permanent arrangement is found in the Strip where someone else can take care of the security mission and protect the borders, go ahead. I currently don’t see it on the horizon.”

He is asked why, if the Philadelphi Corridor is so important, he agreed to a withdrawal from Gaza in the May proposal, at a time when the IDF had still not even taken full control of the Corridor.

In response, he says he is willing to reduce forces on the Egypt-Gaza border because there is no need for troops “every meter.”

“We need to be at several locations, connected, at a certain distance from one another, with the ability to patrol along the entire road, and that is what is necessary for guarding against the terrorists, and also for protecting our troops, and also for making sure no one crosses with hostages above ground. Below ground, there is a solution.”

Netanyahu says that Israel cannot rely on sensors or others to guard the Philadelphi Corridor.

He is asked about the sense among some hostage families that an Israeli ethos has been broken in the failure to return all the hostages, and told that Rabbi Elhanan Danino, the father of Ori Danino, one of the six murdered hostages, said in an interview today that he didn’t feel Netanyahu had done everything possible to bring his son home alive.

Netanyahu says he will never judge any member of a bereaved family. As a member of a bereaved family himself, he says, he knows the unthinkable pain they endure.

Regarding the six, “we didn’t succeed” in getting them out alive. “We were very, very close. Not enough,” he repeats. “We are doing everything… I look for every means… to get them home.” He says he pushes to maximize the number of living hostages to be released in any deal.

Asked about the disunity between him and Defense Minister Gallant, he says the relationship can continue “so long as there is trust,” and stresses that all ministers must be bound by cabinet decisions. “That is what is being tested now.”

He laments the “considerable disinformation” about events leading up to October 7 — “so many lies” — and what happens in the cabinet. But he says he will not support a state commission of inquiry while the fighting is still taking place — so that soldiers and officers would not need to worry about finding lawyers.

“We don’t have a pressing need to do it now; we have a pressing need not to do it now. And at the end of the war, we will decide how we are doing it, when we are doing it.”

Answering a question about leaks from security officials attacking cabinet decisions, Netanyahu says that “the one who makes decisions is the government, and the army and other security agencies are required to follow those decisions. I don’t see another option.”

Asked what would define the end of the war, he says that will be “when Hamas no longer rules Gaza. We throw them out.” As was the case with the defeat of Nazi Germany, he says, that requires a military and a political victory — “we’re well on the way to achieving both.”

Finally, now in English, he returns to the pressure on Israel for concessions in the wake of the Hamas killings of the six hostages. “What has changed in the last five days? What has changed? One thing. These murderers executed six of our hostages. They shot them in the back of the head. That’s what’s changed. And now, after this, we’re asked to show seriousness? We’re asked to make concessions? What message does this send Hamas? It says kill more hostages, murder more hostages, you’ll get more concessions.”

He urges: “The pressure internationally must be directed at these killers, at Hamas, not at Israel. We say yes, they say no all the time. But they also murdered these people. And now we need maximal pressure on Hamas.

“I don’t believe that either President Biden or anyone serious about achieving peace and achieving their release would seriously ask Israel, Israel, to make these concessions,” he concludes. “We’ve already made them. Hamas has to make the concessions.”