Tel Aviv [Israel], June 24 : Amid Israel's ongoing war with Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that the nation is prepared to pause the ongoing fight, in exchange for a partial deal for the return of hostages in Gaza, but the "war will not end" until Hamas is destroyed, according to The Times of Israel.
Netanyahu added that as Israel gets ready for a possible all-out war with Lebanon's Hezbollah, which has been stepping up its cross-border strikes on Israel, the intense battle phase in the Gaza Strip is also winding down.
This was Netanyahu's first interview with a Hebrew media outlet since Hamas's terror attack on October 7. He was speaking on Channel 14.
On being asked if Israel was prepared for an agreement with Hamas, Netanyahu said, "No. I'm not prepared to end the war and leave Hamas standing. I am prepared to do a partial deal; that's no secret, that would return some of the people to us," according to The Times of Israel.
"But we are obligated to continue the fighting after a pause to complete our goal of destroying Hamas," he told Channel 14's "The Patriots" program.
"I'm not prepared to give up on that," he asserted.
MK Gadi Eisenkot, a former observer of the war cabinet, stated on Monday that the war cabinet's choices were contradicted by Netanyahu's remarks.
There were only two possibilities available to someone sitting in the cabinet: a thorough deal in three stages or a full deal all at once. Given that the war cabinet made a unanimous consensus on this, Netanyahu's claim of a "partial deal" is in conflict with their conclusions, reported The Times of Israel.
Along with Benny Gantz, the leader of his National Unity party, Eisenkot resigned from government two weeks ago.
He told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee that Netanyahu's comments had "emotionally disturbed" the families of the hostages and "critically damaged Israel's resilience." "Perhaps it was a slip of the tongue," he continued.
The conflict in Gaza escalated after the October 7 attack by Hamas, where about 2,500 terrorists breached the border into Israel from the Gaza Strip, leading to casualties and the seizure of hostages.
Israel has characterised its Gaza offensive as targeting Hamas' infrastructure with the goal of eliminating the entire terror group while making efforts to minimise civilian casualties.
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