Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected this Wednesday (7) the conditions imposed by the terrorist group Hamas for a truce agreement and the release of more than 100 Israeli hostages who have still been held in the Gaza Strip since October.
In a press conference held this Wednesday, Netanyahu stated that the continuation of “military pressure” on the enclave is necessary to actually achieve the release of the hostages and an “absolute victory” over Hamas, which would include the destruction of its military infrastructure. and the permanent demilitarization of the region.
“Continued military pressure is a necessary condition for the release of the hostages; Succumbing to Hamas will only lead to another massacre,” said Netanyahu, referring to the Palestinian group’s terrorist attack against Israel carried out on October 7, 2023, which killed around 1,200 people and triggered the current war.
The prime minister also said that the Israeli army “must methodically destroy Hamas” until the enclave “poses no threat to Israel”.
Netanyahu made these statements after meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is in the Middle East seeking a new truce agreement. According to the Israeli leader, he informed Blinken that Israel is “a short distance from absolute victory” and that the defeat of Hamas will be the “victory of the entire free world”.
Hamas presented this Tuesday (6) a counter-truce proposal to mediators from Qatar and Egypt, which provided for a 135-day ceasefire, in which there would be an exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners condemned in Israel and the “reconstruction of Gaza ”. The terrorist group demanded in its proposal the withdrawal of Israeli troops and the end of the offensive in the enclave as a framework for the release of prisoners, a request that Israel did not accept.
Netanyahu called these Hamas demands “delusional” and said that complying with this idea “would not only not bring freedom to the hostages, but would invite the terrorist group to carry out an additional massacre.”
“It would invite a disaster for Israel that no Israeli citizen wants,” Netanyahu noted.
The prime minister recalled again that Israel “is on the path to victory” in the Gaza Strip and noted that the war will end “in a matter of months” amid the advances of Israeli troops in their ground offensive. Netanyahu also said that the Israeli Army has already made “unprecedented achievements” while “continuing to kill terrorists,” destroying command centers, military infrastructure and “the tunnels where Hamas hides.”
The prime minister also reaffirmed that, after defeating the terrorist group Hamas, Israel will maintain control over the Gaza Strip and seek to “demilitarize it forever.”
“We will continue until the end,” said the Israeli prime minister. (With EFE Agency)
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