PM after Sinwar killing: Those holding hostages will be spared if they lay down arms, release them
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar marks “the beginning of the day after Hamas.”
“The one who carried out the worst massacre in the history of our people since the Holocaust, the mass murderer who murdered thousands of Israelis, abducted hundreds of our people, was eliminated today by our heroic soldiers,” he says in a video statement. “Today, as we promised we would, we settled accounts with him. Today, evil suffered a heavy blow, but our mission is not yet completed.”
Turning to the hostages’ families, Netanyahu says: “This is an important moment in the war. We will continue with full force until all your loved ones — our loved ones — are returned home. That is our supreme obligation. That is my supreme obligation.”
To the residents of Gaza, he says: “Sinwar destroyed your lives. He told you he was a lion, but in practice, he hid in a dark tunnel and was eliminated when he fled in a panic from our soldiers. His elimination is an important milestone in the demise of the Hamas axis of evil.”
“Hamas will no longer rule Gaza,” Netanyahu promises. “This is the beginning of the day after Hamas, and this is an opportunity for you, the residents of Gaza, to finally break free from its tyranny.”
“To the Hamas terrorists I say: your leaders are fleeing and they will be eliminated,” he continues.
He says that anyone holding hostages will be allowed to live if they lay down their weapons and release their captives.
“And at the same time I say, whoever harms our hostages, his blood will be on his head,” says Netanyahu. ” We will come to a reckoning with him.”
Netanyahu says freeing the hostages brings the end of the war closer.
Addressing the people of the Middle East, Netanyahu says there is “a great opportunity to stop the axis of evil and create a different future — a future of peace, a future in which the entire region thrives. Together we can push away the curse and advance the blessing.”
“In Gaza, in Beirut, in the streets of the entire area, the darkness is withdrawing and the light is rising,” he says, and lists Hamas and Hezbollah leaders eliminated. “Deif, Haniyeh, Sinwar, Nasrallah, Mohsen, Aqil and many of their partners are no more.”
Netanyahu says that Sinwar’s killing makes clear to critics in Israel and abroad why his government insisted on continuing the war. “Why we insisted, in the face of all the pressures, to enter Rafah, the fortified stronghold of Hamas where Sinwar and many of the murderers hid.”
Still, warns Netanyahu, the war is not yet over, and continues to extract a heavy toll.
