Netanyahu: Israel wants ceasefire deal, but will still ‘finish the job in Gaza’

WASHINGTON — Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel “still has to finish the job in Gaza.”

The intention is to “release all our hostages, eliminate and destroy Hamas’s military and governance capabilities, because Gaza must have a different future, for our sake, for everyone’s sake,” he continues.

He says he discussed this with US President Donald Trump. “I may discuss further with him later in this visit.”

Netanyahu says, “The coordination between our two countries, the coordination between an American president and an Israeli prime minister has been unmatched. It offers great promise for Israel, for America, for our region, for the world.”

He says, “We are certainly working on” a ceasefire. “We can’t speak in advance. You need several parties to tango. It’s not even two here. But we are working on it diligently as we speak, in fact on the way over here, and on the way from here.”

“We are not going to let up,” he says. “We have a goal, and we intend to achieve that goal.”

He calls the proposal Israel accepted “a good proposal.”

“It matches Steve Witkoff’s original idea, and we think we’ve gotten closer to it. And I hope we can cross the line, that is our purpose. But the less I speak about it publicly, the more likely that we might get it.”