PM says conquering Gaza City is only way to free all 50 hostages, living and dead

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that through the plan to occupy Gaza City, Israel aims to achieve a comprehensive deal with Hamas that will result in the release of all 50 remaining hostages in Gaza — both the living and the dead.

“As for our goal” in the plan, Netanyahu says at a press conference for local media, “we want to free all the hostages. When I say ‘all,’ I mean the living and the dead.”

Asked for the second time in the press conference whether Israel would agree to a partial hostage-release deal if Hamas offered one after the operation begins, Netanyahu again does not answer directly, saying: “We are going for a deal — not a partial deal — for the complete release of all 20 [remaining living hostages], with the aim of defeating Hamas.”

“We’ve talked about partial deals, we’ve waited for partial deals, and all the while we’ve been misled. [Hamas handed over] a little here, a little there, and would have kept many hostages in their hands — and it’s not at all clear that we would have ever seen them. I want to see them all, and I believe that a decisive victory is the way to achieve that,” he says.

Addressing whether he is concerned that Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir’s expressed disapproval of the plan could affect operational success, Netanyahu says: “I encourage the army, its leaders, and all the security branches: say what’s on your mind. I want to hear it, and many times I am convinced. Sometimes I am not convinced, and in the end, I decide.”

“What we decide is what is carried out. That’s the decision. This is how democracy works,” he says.