Israel\u2019s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to continue the war in Gaza in the face of growing opposition to Israel\u2019s ongoing military campaign. <\/p>\n
In a pre-recorded video Saturday night, Netanyahu said Israel has \u201cno choice\u201d but to keep fighting \u201cfor our very own existence until victory.\u201d The long-time Israeli leader called for \u201cperseverance and resilience\u201d in order to destroy Hamas and bring back the remaining 59 hostages. <\/p>\n
Netanyahu pointed to Hamas\u2019 recent rejection of an Israeli ceasefire proposal as a reason Israel will continue its bombardment of Gaza. Israel\u2019s proposal called for a disarmament of Gaza and did not include a permanent end to the war, both of which have been red lines for Hamas. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf we surrender to Hamas\u2019s demands now, all the tremendous achievements gained by our soldiers, our fallen, and our wounded heroes\u2014those achievements will simply be lost,\u201d Netanyahu said. <\/p>\n
He argued that allowing Hamas to remain in Gaza means \u201cPresident [Donald] Trump\u2019s important vision could never be realized.\u201d Trump has called for moving Palestinians out of Gaza to other countries and redeveloping the coastal enclave into a \u201cRiviera of the Middle East.\u201d He has also floated the idea of US ownership of the narrow strip of land, which is home to more than 2 million Palestinians. <\/p>\n
The Hostage Families Forum Headquarters criticized the Israeli premier\u2019s taped statement. <\/p>\n
\u201cMany words and slogans will not succeed in hiding the simple truth \u2014 Netanyahu has no plan,\u201d the forum said. \u201cIt\u2019s no surprise there was no time for questions \u2014 otherwise, he would have had to answer the most basic one: What exactly is the State of Israel doing to immediately bring back all 59 hostages?\u201d <\/p>\n
Netanyahu also mentioned Iran during his statement, just hours after the US and Iran concluded their second round of talks on Tehran\u2019s nuclear program. \u201cI\u2019m committed to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon,\u201d he said. \u201cI will not give up on this, I will not let go.\u201d <\/p>\n
Netanyahu\u2019s speech comes amid growing protest and opposition to the ongoing military campaign. <\/p>\n
Thousands of Israeli military reservists and retirees have signed public letters calling for a ceasefire deal to return all of the hostages, even at the cost of ending the war. The letters have now come from an increasing number of military units, including elite intelligence and commando units, as well as civilian professions. <\/p>\n
Many Israelis prioritize a deal to return the hostages, even if it means ending the war, according to recent polling. A poll from Israel\u2019s Channel 12 News, released late-last month, indicated that nearly 70% supported such a deal, while only 21% opposed an end to the war. <\/p>\n
A two-month ceasefire that saw 33 Israeli and five Thai hostages released from captivity collapsed on March 18 when Israel renewed its bombardment of Gaza. Israel and the US blamed Hamas for the ceasefire\u2019s end. <\/p>\n
Shortly before Netanyahu\u2019s statement, his spokesman, Omer Dostri, said \u201cit\u2019s not possible to bring everyone back,\u201d calling it \u201ca spin.\u201d Speaking to Channel 12 News, Dostri added, \u201cRight now, it\u2019s not possible to make a single \u2018all for all\u2019 deal, because Hamas is demanding an end to the war and a withdrawal from Gaza.\u201d <\/p>\n
The leader of Israel\u2019s opposition, Yair Lapid, said Dostri\u2019s comments were \u201can admission that the Israeli government has given up on the effort to bring the hostages home.\u201d Lapid called for Netanyahu to clarify the government\u2019s position. In a statement on social media, he said, \u201cIf this is the Prime Minister\u2019s official stance, he should stand up and say it himself. If not, he should apologize on behalf of his spokesperson.\u201d <\/p>\n
Netanyahu pre-recorded statement released a short time later did not address his spokesman\u2019s comments. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Israel\u2019s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to continue the war in Gaza in the face of growing opposition to Israel\u2019s ongoing military campaign. In a pre-recorded video Saturday night, Netanyahu said Israel has \u201cno choice\u201d but to keep fighting \u201cfor our very own existence until victory.\u201d The long-time Israeli leader called for \u201cperseverance and resilience\u201d…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5657,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}