Netanyahu: Israel will not agree to a deal with Hamas that demands end to the war

Amid swirling rumors over the weekend of international pressure on Israel to agree to an effective end to the war in Gaza as part of a hostage release deal, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu releases a video statement emphasizing in no uncertain terms that Israel will not accept an end to the campaign and the withdrawal of IDF troops from the Strip.

“Israel cannot accept this,” he says. “We are not ready to accept a situation in which the Hamas battalions come out of their bunkers, take control of Gaza again, rebuild their military infrastructure, and return to threatening the citizens of Israel in the surrounding communities, in the cities of the south, in all parts of the country.”

“Israel will not agree to Hamas’s demands, which mean surrender, and will continue the fighting until all its goals are achieved,’ says Netanyahu, repeating a message he has expressed throughout the war.

Netanyahu says accepting Hamas’s demands would only bring the next conflict closer, and would allow Hamas to carry out another massacre in the future.

The prime minister stresses that Israel is still open to a deal, but Hamas “remains entrenched in its positions.”

Senior officials from the US, Qatar, and Egypt are in Cairo, as are Hamas officials.

Netanyahu decided not to send a delegation at this stage.