PM insists his ‘heart is with the hostages and their families,’ denies politics motivated return to fighting

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists in a televised address from Tel Aviv that Israel “will continue to fight” until all of its war goals are achieved in Gaza — returning all the hostages, destroying Hamas, and ensuring Gaza will never again constitute a threat to Israel.

He says, “My heart, all of our hearts, are with the hostages and their families.”

“They are going through an inhuman nightmare every day, every minute,” he says of the hostages still in Gaza. He states that his commitment is to work tirelessly to free all the hostages, living and dead.

As he often does, Netanyahu blasts the press for “lies” and denies any political considerations were behind the resumed military operation in Gaza.

“They have no shame, they have no red lines,” he asserts, referring to critics in the media. “They simply echo Hamas’s propaganda time and time again,” he argues. “So I want to say to Hamas — don’t rely on this. Because nothing will stop us from achieving all the goals of the war.”

He praises the IDF and other branches of the security establishment, including the Shin Bet, whose director Ronen Bar he has told he intends to fire this week.

Regarding the fighting in Gaza, Netanyahu insists that “military pressure is a necessary condition” for further hostage releases. “Hurting Hamas militarily and the freeing of our hostages are not contradictory goals. They are goals that complement each other.”

On the ballistic missile fired by the Houthis in Yemen at Israel earlier today, Netanyahu says that he “greatly appreciates” US military cooperation against the “Iranian axis in Yemen.”

“We still have a great deal of work to do against other parts of the axis of evil,” he says before his customary sign-off that a unified Israel will defeat its enemies. “With God’s help, united we will act, and united we will win.”