Netanyahu dismisses ‘delusional’ call to ‘trick’ Hamas by gaining hostages’ freedom with false promise to end the war

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists that there can be no end to the war against Hamas in Gaza without removing Hamas from power first. And he dismisses what he calls the “delusional” suggestion that he “trick” Hamas by agreeing to end the conflict now in order to secure the release of the hostages, but then order a return to military operations afterward.

Speaking in a recorded video address, Netanyahu says Hamas is demanding a full Israeli retreat from Gaza, including from the Philadelphi Corridor on the Egypt-Gaza border and the buffer zone Israel has established, and states that Hamas is demanding “binding international guarantees” to ensure that Israel does not go back to war after the release of the hostages.

“We will not end the ‘war of rebirth’ before we destroy Hamas in Gaza, return all our hostages and ensure that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel,” says Netanyahu.

He sneers at so-called Israeli experts “who are calling to accept the Hamas dictates, and are telling us: ‘Capitulate now, leave Gaza and the Philadelphi Corridor, trick Hamas by promising that you won’t resume the war, and after Hamas returns all the hostages, do resume the war’.”

“Most ridiculous of all,” he goes on, these experts are openly urging this course of action, “in TV studies, with Hamas watching them.”

“Hamas are a group of despicable murderers but they’re not stupid,” says Netanyahu. “They are demanding binding international guarantees that will not enable the delusional ruse that the self-styled experts are presenting to us in the studios.”

These TV pundits “have no idea how the international system operates,” he says. “Nobody, certainly including the United States, and not China, Russia or the other members of the UN Security Council, will cooperate with this ruse, something which will make returning to war impossible. We won’t have any legitimacy to do this.”

“So I want to clarify: There is no ‘fake obligation’. If we obligate not to fight, we can’t go back to fighting in Gaza.”

Netanyahu goes on to say that were Israel to leave the Gaza security zone it has established, “Hamas would soon reconstitute its terror army, and could then again carry out mass kidnappings and additional slaughter of Israeli citizens. My obligation as prime minister is to prevent this. And I will indeed prevent this.

I believe that we can return our hostages without capitulating to the dictates of Hamas,” he says.

He says that in a security cabinet meeting early in the war, possibly the first, “a very senior security official said we’d need to get used to the idea that we might not manage to return even a single hostage.”

He, however, always “believed that the combination of military pressure and diplomatic pressure would lead to the release of our hostages. Many did not believe this. But to date we have returned 196 hostages — 147 of them alive. There are still 24 living hostages held in Gaza and 35 slain hostages. The mission is not yet complete. I intend to complete it without surrendering to Hamas.”

“We will step up the pressure on Hamas until we achieve all the goals of the war, he vows.