I set three goals: Eliminate Hamas, free all hostages, and prevent Gaza from threatening Israel. These goals still stand.
By Vered Weiss
On Wednesday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement emphasizing that the IDF will continue the ground war after the hostages are released until they achieve the goal of the war to eliminate Hamas.
“From the start of the war, I set three goals: Eliminating Hamas, returning all of our hostages, and ensuring that Gaza will never again go back to being a threat to the State of Israel. These three goals still stand.”
“In the past week, we have had a very great achievement – the return of dozens of our hostages. A week ago this seemed imaginary but we achieved it.”
“But in recent days I have heard a question: After completing this stage of the return of our hostages, will Israel go back to the fighting? My answer is an unequivocal ‘yes.”
“There is no situation in which we do not go back to fighting until the end. This is my policy. The entire Security Cabinet is behind it. The entire Government is behind it. The soldiers are behind it. The people are behind it – this is exactly what we will do.”
This statement comes with the announcement of an extension of the truce to release more hostages and news that Hamas may, under certain circumstances, release all of the prisoners taken from Israel on October 7th.
As of Wednesday, 65 Israeli women and children have been released by Hamas, along with 20 foreign nationals.
In exchange, Israel has released 180 women and teenage Palestinian terrorists.
The head of the CIA, William Burns, David Barnea, head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani met in Doha on Tuesday to discuss the terms of the ceasefire extension.
According to an Israeli official, this extension will not be construed as a step towards a permanent ceasefire.
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