Netanyahu: I want to end war ASAP, told IDF to shorten timeline for capturing Gaza City

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that the security cabinet’s approval of a plan to take over Gaza City is a result of Hamas’s “continued refusal” to compromise in negotiations for a truce, and rejects claims that the plan will aimlessly prolong the war.

Speaking before live TV cameras and reporters during a Hebrew press conference for local media at his Jerusalem office, Netanyahu says that, “After months of fruitless negotiations, it has become clear beyond doubt that Hamas simply is not interested in a deal. Hamas has clung to this refusal.”

Hamas “has raised impossible conditions — not only in our view, but also in the view of the United States,” he charges, saying “They include, among other things, a complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip — including from the Philadelphi Corridor — which would allow the free smuggling of weapons; the release of imprisoned terrorists, these monsters; and a demand for binding international guarantees that would prevent the IDF from resuming combat. These are terms of surrender that no responsible government would agree to accept — and certainly I will not accept them.”

“Hamas has deceived us. Therefore, I have become convinced that the only way to return all our hostages is to defeat Hamas,” says Netanyahu.

He adds that in the security cabinet’s discussions, “an alternative was also raised — to hold our position while encircling the remaining Hamas strongholds and carrying out raids.

After an in-depth discussion, an overwhelming majority of cabinet members concluded that by this method, we would achieve neither victory nor the return of our hostages.”

The decision for the expanded takeover was achieved “despite immense pressures from home and abroad — pressures to stop the war,” which Netanyahu says existed “even before we entered Rafah” last year.

The premier says that if he had yielded “to those pressures,” Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh “would still be ruling in Gaza, [former Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah would be in Lebanon, [former Syrian president Bashar] al-Assad in Syria, and Iran today would be racing toward a nuclear weapon.”

“I am determined to end the war with our victory, and precisely because I am aware of the great effort of our reservists, I want to end the war as quickly as possible. That is why I have instructed the IDF to shorten the timetable for taking control of Gaza City,” he says, adding, “I do not intend to perpetuate Hamas — I intend to defeat Hamas.”