Netanyahu: We continue to insist on eliminating Hamas in Gaza

As Israeli officials continue to push back on elements of the hostage deal proposal presented by US President Joe Biden over the weekend — ostensibly an Israeli offer — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that Israel has gone “a long way” in order to try to get the hostages back, but asserts that all the while “we maintained the aims of the war, primarily the elimination of Hamas.

“We insist that we achieve both [aims],” he says in a video statement. “It is not something I am adding now, it is not something I am adding because I was pressured by the coalition. It is something we unanimously agreed upon in the war cabinet.”

In his address, Biden indicated that the second phase would see a permanent end to the war and that Hamas would not be in power, but did not detail how that would happen.

Earlier in the day, Netanyahu reportedly told lawmakers that Biden’s version was missing key elements of Israel’s proposal.