In apparent swipe at hostage deal protests, PM says Hamas aiming to sow discord

Calling today “a difficult day,” at the opening of the weekly cabinet meeting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sends his condolences to the families of the three Israelis killed in a shooting terror attack at the Allenby Bridge Crossing between the West Bank and Jordan.

“We are surrounded by a murderous ideology led by Iran’s axis of evil,” says Netanyahu. “In recent days, despicable terrorists have murdered six of our hostages in cold blood and three Israeli police officers. The murderers do not distinguish between us, they want to murder us all, until the very last one — right and left, secular and religious, Jews and non-Jews.”

Referencing an article in a German tabloid that said it revealed a document approved by Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar aiming to exploit domestic political tensions in Israel, the prime minister calls for unity: “When we stand together our enemies cannot overcome us, so their main goal is to divide us, to sow division within us.”

“Last weekend, the German newspaper Bild published an official Hamas document that reveals its plan of action: to sow division within us, to wage psychological warfare on the families of the abductees, to exert internal and external political pressure on the Israeli government, to tear us apart from the inside, and to continue the war until further notice.”

Netanyahu claims that “the vast majority of Israeli citizens” are committed to Israel’s war aims — “to eliminate Hamas, to return all our hostages, to ensure that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel and to safely return our residents in the north and south to their homes.”

The final goal has been added by Netanyahu in recent days amid criticism from Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and opposition leaders.

“There are those who ask,” he concludes, “‘Will we always live by the sword?’ In the Middle East, without the sword there is no future.”