PM to Knesset: Hamas was never previously ready to accept current deal to return all hostages, keep IDF in most of Gaza; Israel working ‘non-stop’ to bring home deceased hostages

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says “we have to bring the slain hostages home, until the very last one,” as he addresses the Knesset plenum.

He reads the names of the 16 slain hostages still held in Gaza, starting with Hadar Goldin, an IDF officer killed in 2014.

He accidentally calls slain hostage soldier Itay Chen “Eitan Chen,” prompting corrections from the opposition and a general rumpus in the plenum.

“No one needs to remind us of the importance of the sacred mission of bringing back the slain hostages,” the premier says. “We are working non-stop, including in the meeting I held just before I arrived here,” a likely reference to his meeting with top White House advisers Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

He rejects the assertion that the deal Israel accepted earlier this month was available a year ago. “At no stage – not six months ago, not a year ago, not a year and a half ago – at no stage was Hamas ready to accept the proposal that we attained now. The return of all our hostages at once, IDF control over the majority of Gaza’s territory, IDF presence in the majority of Gaza’s territory, and an explicit commitment with broad international agreement, including Arab countries, and almost all the Muslim world, to demilitarize the Strip, and disarm Hamas.”

“We are determined to achieve…all the goals of the war,” he promises, adding the goal of “eliminating Hamas as a diplomatic and military actor.”