Both President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump have given Israel full backing to resume the war in Gaza if Israel concludes that talks with Hamas on the second phase of the ceasefire agreement prove “futile,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday night.
The hostage-terrorist exchange agreement “is the result of Israel’s cooperation with the outgoing administration of President Biden and the incoming administration of President Trump,” Netanyahu said in a Hebrew-language televised address.
“As soon as he was elected, President Trump joined the mission of freeing the hostages. He talked to me on Wednesday night. He praised the agreement and rightly emphasized that the first step of the agreement is a temporary ceasefire. This is what he said—‘a temporary ceasefire,’” the prime minister continued.
Netanyahu stressed that Israel had retained “significant assets” to be used to return all remaining hostages from Gaza, as well as to accomplish all of the Jewish state’s war goals.
The first stage of the ceasefire accord with Hamas, set to begin at 8:30 a.m. on Sunday, stipulates the release of 33 Israeli hostages out of a total of 98—including 94 taken on Oct. 7, 2023—not all of whom are alive, in exchange for Israel releasing up to 1,904 Palestinian terrorists.
The second phase would see the release of the remaining hostages in exchange for more Palestinian terrorists held in Israeli jails, and an Israeli army withdrawal from almost all of the Gaza Strip—although these terms are projected to be finalized in further negotiations.
“I also appreciate President Trump’s decision to remove all remaining restrictions on the supply of essential weapons and armaments to the State of Israel,” the premier went on to say.
“If needed the fighting will continue, and we will do this in new ways and we will do it with great force,” Netanyahu said.
“This agreement is first and foremost the result of our brave fighters in combat, and is the result of our steadfast insistence of the vital interests of Israel,” he stressed.
Israel’s longest-serving prime minister outlined three basic principles that he insisted on maintaining throughout the negotiations with the Gaza terrorist organization.
The first, he noted, was to resume the war if needed, despite Hamas’s demand to end the war as a precondition to the release of the hostages.
Second, was to increase the number of abductees to be freed in the first stage of the agreement. In May, according to Netanyahu, Hamas wanted to release only half of the 33 hostages.
Third, was to maintain a military foothold in the Philadelphi Corridor that runs along Gaza’s Egyptian border. The Israel Defense Forces’ presence there will even increase “a little,” he said.
“Our forces will be deployed inside the Strip and close it from all sides. We will not allow weapons to be smuggled in, and we will not allow our hostages to be smuggled out,” Netanyahu said.
He added that Palestinian prisoners who had committed murder will not be freed to Judea and Samaria but will be expelled to the Gaza Strip “or abroad.”
“The ‘Revival War’ demands difficult decisions from us, but it is in these decisions that leadership is tested. These are decisions that take into account all of our national and security considerations. And unfortunately, I can’t list them all here,” Netanyahu said.
In concluding his remarks, the premier said, “The war campaign is not over yet. A long and challenging journey awaits us. This is not the time for division and polarization; this is the time for unity and connection. This is what Israel’s heritage commands us; this is what the generation of victory demands of us.
“We are winning because the spirit that beats in us is winning. This is the spirit of an ancient people, a people who refuses to submit to those who rise above us to eradicate us,” he said.
