TV report: Netanyahu says war against Hamas set to continue into 2025

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly told local council chiefs from communities near Gaza today that he anticipates the war against Hamas extending into 2025.

According to an unsourced Channel 12 report on the meeting, which was held at the IDF’s southern command headquarters in Beersheba and attended by other security cabinet ministers, Netanyahu told the council chiefs that, according to the current assessment, the war would continue into 2025.

He disclosed the assessment in the course of a discussion in which he also reportedly agreed to revise a current Defense Ministry framework that provides financial assistance to Israeli citizens who are prepared to return to evacuated communities 4-7 kilometers from the Gaza border.

The local council chiefs told Netanyahu that most of their residents do not wish to return at this point, because of ongoing rocket fire from Gaza and other security concerns, the TV report said. They called for the process of returning to be delayed or extended until the summer and the start of the new school year, and for the state to continue to fund them staying in temporary accommodation until then.

Netanyahu said he accepted their request, promised that the financial assistance would be applicable then as well, and instructed the relevant officials to draw up the necessary framework, the TV report said.

In public remarks at the start of the meeting, Netanyahu said: “We are determined to rehabilitate the kibbutzim and communities in what is known as the so-called Gaza envelope area, to return the residents to their homes, and to ensure that [the area] thrives and grows far more than it was before the war.”