Netanyahu to Biden: We’re open to extending truce, but after that, war will ‘continue full power’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he told US President Joe Biden that he is open to extending the current truce, but once it is over, the IDF ground operation will return in full force.

“We brought home another group of hostages, children and women, and I am moved to the depths of my heart, the entire nation is, when we see families reunited,” he says in a video statement.

Netanyahu says he just spoke with Biden about the release, in particular orphaned US-Israeli citizen Avigail Idan, 4, “what a joy it is to see her with us. But on the other hand, what sadness that she is returning to a reality without parents.”

The prime minister points out that the current four-day truce can be extended to allow for more hostages to be released: “for every day another 10.”

Netanyahu says he also told Biden that “at the end of the deal, we are returning full power to carry out our aims: destroy Hamas, ensure that Gaza won’t return to what it was and of course to free all of our hostages.”

“I am sure that we will succeed in this mission — because we have no other choice.”