Netanyahu tells Knesset: ‘Some progress’ achieved in hostage deal talks with Hamas

PM doesn’t reveal details, but says negotiation efforts are ‘significant’; says those who think Arab-Israeli peace depends on Palestinians ‘have no idea’ what they’re talking about

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the Knesset on December 23, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the Knesset on December 23, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

In a typically rowdy session in the Knesset plenum Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed cautious optimism about the chances for a hostage deal with Hamas.

“I would like to tell you carefully,” he said, during a so-called 40 signatures debate which the opposition can call once a month, “there is some progress.”

Clarifying reasons for the progress, Netanyahu said: “First, [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar is no longer with us.”

“Hamas hoped that Hezbollah and Iran would come to their aid, but they are licking their wounds; and Hamas itself is also taking more and more blows. So there is progress. I don’t know how long it will take, but we are making efforts,” he said.

Days before the Hanukkah holiday, Netanyahu said happiness cannot be complete “until we get all the hostages home.”

“I cannot tell you all the things we are doing, but we are taking significant actions on all levels,” Netanyahu continued.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the Knesset on December 23, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/ Flash90)

“We will continue to act in every way, without respite, until we bring everyone home from enemy territory,” he promised.

Gaps between Israel and the Hamas terror group over a possible Gaza hostage release and ceasefire deal have narrowed, according to Israeli and Palestinian officials’ remarks on Monday, though crucial differences have yet to be resolved, as fighting continues in the war-torn enclave.

The war started with the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, in which terrorists killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 people to Gaza as hostages.

It is believed that 96 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.

Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 38 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors.

Shifting his speech to the wider region, Netanyahu said that Israel’s military feats are “changing the face of the Middle East.”

“Our string of successes and victories inspires enormous appreciation in our region and throughout the world,” he said, adding that even Israel’s enemies recognize the scale of its achievements.

“They see the enormous destruction that Hamas and Hezbollah have brought upon themselves with their own hands,” he said. “They are staring at the elimination of their leaders in the first, second, and third echelons. In the fourth echelon. There are no echelons left.”

Netanyahu also blasted the opposition for mocking his insistence on total victory. “Reality is stronger than your contempt and mockery,” he said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the Knesset on December 23, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Had Israel stopped the war before entering Gaza’s Rafah and taking control of the Philadelphi corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border, and before tackling Hezbollah, as many in the opposition had urged, said Netanyahu, that would have marked a victory for Iran and its axis of evil, and it “would not have freed anybody.”

“Time and again, it has been proven who was right and who was wrong.”

There are more challenges ahead of Israel, he warned. “We are not taking our eyes off Iran, which threatens to destroy us, and we are determined to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and other weapons that could threaten our cities and our homeland.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu makes a video statement announcing a stepped-up campaign against the Houthi rebels in Yemen, December 22, 2024. (Screenshot/GPO)

Turning to Yemen, Netanyahu said that Israel’s recent strikes on the Houthis “are not the first and I will tell you that they will not be the last. We have destroyed significant terrorist assets that the Houthis have, that were used against us.”

Netanyahu also said that it is possible to expand the circle of peace around Israel, and claimed that those who believe peace with Arab countries depends on peace with the Palestinians “have no idea what you are talking about.”

“We brought about four historic peace agreements with the Abraham Accords. And now I am telling you there will be more agreements,” he said.

From left, Bahrain Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, then-US president Donald Trump, and United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan, sit during the Abraham Accords signing ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House, in Washington, September 15, 2020. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

“I’m not saying the Palestinian issue doesn’t make things hard for us,” but “there is a change,” he said. “And if you think that our Arab neighbors do not see the reality that many of you here, at least some of you, are trying to deny, the tectonic changes that are taking place here are not happening by themselves.”

Israel’s success in the ongoing war “creates opportunities for expanding the circle of peace,” he claimed. “And the moderate Arab countries see Israel as a regional power and a possible ally for ensuring their security, the stability, and prosperity of the entire region. And I intend to fully exploit this opportunity, together with our American friends.”

The wave of normalization in relations between Israel and neighboring Arab states has halted since the war in Gaza began, most notably in the case of Saudi Arabia, which has since said that it will not consider normalizing relations until Jerusalem commits to a “credible path” to a Palestinian state.

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