Netanyahu marks six months of war, calls for unity: We must unite to repel attacks against us

In a statement delivered at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu marks six months since the October 7 massacre, vowing that Israel will achieve complete victory over Hamas and calling for unity among Israel’s citizens.

“I made it clear to the international community: There will be no ceasefire without the return of the hostages. It just won’t happen,” Netanyahu says.

“This is the Israeli government’s policy, and I welcome the fact that the Biden administration made it clear the other day that this is still its position as well.”

Turning to the ongoing negotiations for a temporary truce and hostage release deal, Netanyahu says that “Israel is not the one preventing a deal. Hamas is preventing a deal.”

“Its extreme demands were intended to bring about an end to the war and leave it intact. To ensure its survival, its rehabilitation, its ability to endanger our citizens and our soldiers,” the premier continues. “Surrendering to Hamas’s demands will allow it to try to repeat the crimes of October 7 again and again, as it promised to do.”

Rattling off a list of threats Israel has eliminated in recent days, and mentioning, for the first time, the return of hostage Elad Katzir’s body to his family, Netanyahu says Israel “must unite to repel the attacks against us.”

“This is the time for unity. But precisely at this time, an extreme and violent minority is trying to drag the country into division,” he says. “There is nothing our enemies want more.”

“Let our enemies make no mistake – the absolute majority of the people are united in the need to continue fighting until victory,” Netanyahu continues. “The majority of the people, and I am among them, condemns any manifestation of violence within us – riots and violations of the law, trampling on demonstrators or attacking policemen, wild incitement and murderous violence on social media.”