Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday afternoon posted the following video:
“I want to refer to biased media reports which damage the negotiations for the release of the hostages, as well as needless suffering to the hostages’ families who are enduring a nightmare and my heart is with them.
“Contrary to these reports, Hamas is the one hindering the release of our hostages. We act in every possible way to release the hostages. It is our highest concern. Israel was and still is prepared to pause the war to release our hostages. This is what we did when we gained the release of 124 hostages and then resumed the fighting – and we are ready to do this again today.
“In recent weeks we have been working around the clock to forge a deal that would bring back the hostages. And again, completely contrary to reports, to attain this goal, we gave our negotiations team a very broad mandate to promote the release. We did this out of our deep commitment to the hostages and their families, and to end the terrible suffering of the families.
“Throughout the negotiations, Israel demonstrated a willingness to go a long way, which was described by Secretary of State Blinken and others as ‘especially generous.’ But while Israel has been showing such willingness, Hamas remained entrenched in its extremist positions, chief among them the demand to withdraw all our forces from the Gaza Strip, end the fighting, and keep Hamas in its position.
“The State of Israel cannot accept this. We are not ready to accept a situation in which the Hamas battalions would leave their tunnels, retake Gaza, rehabilitate their military capabilities, and once again threaten the citizens of Israel in the Gaza envelope settlements, in the southern towns, throughout the country.
“In such a case, the next October 7 would only be a matter of time. Hamas would be able to make good on its promise to repeat again and again the massacre, the rapes, and the kidnappings. Did our heroes and heroines give their lives to such an end? Is that why we paid such an unbearable cost? The answer is, No! Surrendering to the demands of Hamas would be a terrible defeat for the State of Israel. It would be an incredible victory for Hamas, Iran, and the entire Axis of Evil. It would project a terrible weakness – to our friends as well as our enemies. And such weakness would only bring the next war closer and push the next peace agreement further.
“You don’t sign pacts with the weak and the defeated. You sign pacts with the strong and the winner. Therefore Israel will not agree to Hamas’s demands that mean surrender, and will continue the fighting until all her goals have been achieved.”
