Netanyahu: Israel is ‘approaching the completion of the first phase’ of Gaza peace plan

Israel is “approaching the completion of the first phase” of US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan for Gaza, says Prime Minister Netanyahu during the weekly cabinet meeting.

“We also want to bring back, and are working to bring back, Rani Gvili, of blessed memory, a hero of Israel,” he says, referring to the last slain hostage in Gaza.

Netanyahu says in a special cabinet meeting in Dimona that Israel is doing “a great deal” to get his body back, “here, in Cairo, and in other places.”

After Israel assassinated top Hamas military commander Ra’ad Sa’ad over the weekend, Netanyahu says that Israel’s policy is clear: “We will not tolerate systematic violations of the ceasefire agreement to which Hamas is committed under the plan. Anyone who attempts to send terror, direct terror, or organize terror against us will be precisely targeted, exactly as the US secretary of war, Pete Hegseth, said yesterday.

“Their policy is our policy. There is no difference between them. This is how we act, and this is how we will continue to act,” he promises.

Netanyahu says that Sa’ad was the leader of Hamas’s attempts to rebuild its military forces.

“I said that in English we speak about disarmament — demilitarization — while he was doing remilitarization. That is, he was rearming, reorganizing, essentially organizing the continuation of the assault, in complete contradiction to the principles that Hamas ostensibly accepted by adopting the Trump plan.”