Despite the deaths of many civilians, the guns will not yet fall silent in the Middle East. Benyamin Netanyahu in fact insisted on Monday that he was not going to stop the war in the Gaza Strip “now”. He thus wants to prevent Hamas from being able to “rebuild” itself.
“If we stop the war now, Hamas will rise, rebuild and attack us again, and that is what we do not want to return to,” the Israeli Prime Minister explained during a press conference in Jerusalem .
Do not relive “the catastrophe of October 7”
After the unprecedented attack of October 7, 2023 carried out by Hamas in southern Israel from the neighboring Gaza Strip, Benjamin Netanyahu promised to destroy the Islamist movement and his army launched a devastating offensive in the Palestinian territory .
“We have set as our objective the annihilation of Hamas, the elimination of its military and power capabilities, so that they cannot recover and the catastrophe of October 7 does not repeat itself. We fought there for that, of course also to bring back our hostages,” added the Prime Minister. “The isolation of Hamas offers a new opportunity to advance an agreement that will bring back our hostages,” he assured.
The October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people on the Israeli side, the majority civilians, according to a count based on official figures and including hostages who died or were killed in captivity in the Gaza Strip. That day, 251 people were kidnapped on Israeli soil. A total of 96 hostages remain in Gaza, 34 of whom were declared dead by the army.
Hamas wants “an end to the war” to free the hostages
Benjamin Netanyahu met on Sunday with relatives of hostages and told them that “the fall of the (Syrian President Bashar) al-Assad regime, which also happened thanks to Israel’s determined actions against Hezbollah and Hamas, could help move forward to an agreement on the return of the hostages,” according to a statement from his office. A source within Hamas, on the other hand, affirmed the same day that only “stopping the war” could allow the release of the hostages.
Our file on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
The Israeli offensive has left more than 44,758 dead in the Gaza Strip, the majority civilians, according to data from the Hamas Ministry of Health for Gaza, deemed reliable by the UN.
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