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No Gaza ceasefire even if hostage deal is reached: Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu
Benjamin Netanyahu said that if Hamas were to release more hostages, Israel would take them, but then it "will go in".
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said that there is “no way” Israel will stop its war in Gaza, even if a deal is reached to release more hostages, reported the Associated Press.
He said that if Hamas were to release more hostages, Israel would take them, but then it "will go in".
“We’ll take them (hostages), and then we’ll go in. But there will be no way we will stop the war,” Netanyahu said. “We can make a ceasefire for a certain period of time, but we’re going to the end.”
According to the Associated Press, Netanyahu's comments are likely to complicate talks on a new ceasefire that had seemed to gain momentum after Hamas released the last living American hostage on Monday in a gesture to US President Donald Trump, who is visiting the region but skipping Israel.
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Trump had earlier expressed hope that Monday’s release of Israeli-American soldier Edan Alexander would be a step toward ending the 19-month war.
“This was a step taken in good faith towards the United States and the efforts of the mediators — Qatar and Egypt — to put an end to this very brutal war and return ALL living hostages and remains to their loved ones,” the US president had said on his social media platform Truth Social on Sunday evening. “Hopefully, this is the first of those final steps necessary to end this brutal conflict. I look very much forward to that day of celebration!”
Hamas has stated that it will only release the remaining hostages if there are more Palestinian prisoner releases, a permanent ceasefire, and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
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Some 58 hostages remain held in Gaza, including 34, the Israeli military says, are dead. Hamas also holds the remains of an Israeli soldier killed in a 2014 war, according to AFP.
Many of the 250 hostages taken by Hamas-led militants in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack that started the war were freed in ceasefire deals.
Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people in the 2023 attack. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 52,800 Palestinians, many of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were combatants or civilians.
Israel’s military action has devastated large areas of Gaza’s urban environment, forcing 90% of its residents to flee.
