The intensive section of Israel’s conflict towards Hamas is “about to finish,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mentioned in a Sunday evening interview on Israeli tv, though he emphasised that didn’t imply the battle was coming to a detailed.
After the operation in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost metropolis and the most recent focus of Israel’s floor offensive, the prime minister mentioned, Israel would preserve “mowing the garden” — a time period lengthy utilized in Israeli safety circles to indicate using pressure geared toward curbing the regrowth of militant organizations.
Mr. Netanyahu’s remarks had been the most recent suggestion by senior Israeli officers that the conflict may quickly enter a interval of change.
Israel’s protection minister, Yoav Gallant, was in Washington for conferences with Biden administration officers, which he mentioned would come with dialogue of “the transition to ‘Part C’ in Gaza.”
Whereas Israel’s army says it’s near dismantling or critically degrading Hamas’s army infrastructure, the federal government has not proposed any clear plan for the administration of Gaza after the conflict.
Mr. Netanyahu recommended within the interview {that a} postwar civilian administration would contain native Palestinians, hopefully with the assistance of average Arab nations. The Israeli army must preserve total safety management of the enclave, he mentioned.
The prime minister continued to rule out a proposal that has been pushed by the Biden administration: handing over Gaza to the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, which workout routines restricted self-rule in components of the occupied West Financial institution.
To get to the “day after Hamas,” Mr. Netanyahu mentioned, “first it’s important to eradicate Hamas” — reiterating his longstanding place that the armed group be absolutely eradicated, a aim that many consultants say is unattainable.
The prime minister’s remarks got here in a 44-minute interview he granted to “The Patriots,” a populist and infrequently divisive nightly discuss present on Channel 14, a right-wing Israeli tv station that caters to Mr. Netanyahu’s voter base.
Mr. Netanyahu has not often been interviewed in Hebrew for an Israeli viewers for the reason that begin of the conflict. He has confronted criticism domestically for granting frequent interviews to American networks whereas partaking with Israelis primarily by means of sporadic televised statements and information conferences or by way of video clips.
Mr. Netanyahu additionally addressed the stalled cease-fire negotiations throughout the interview, suggesting at one level that he was keen to strike a “partial” deal for the return of solely a few of the 120 hostages being held in Gaza — a press release that his workplace rapidly walked again.
The prime minister mentioned he was able to conform to a brief truce and the discharge of a few of the hostages, then subsequently resuming the conflict. That proposition appeared to contradict an Israeli proposal that was accepted final month by Mr. Netanyahu and his conflict cupboard for a phased deal that will launch all of the hostages and usher in a everlasting cease-fire — a proposal that was endorsed by President Biden and the United Nations Safety Council.
However at one other level in Sunday’s interview, Mr. Netanyahu mentioned he was dedicated to bringing again all of the remaining hostages, no less than a 3rd of whom Israel has mentioned have died in captivity.
In a quick assertion issued after the interview, Mr. Netanyahu’s workplace mentioned it was Hamas that opposed a deal, not Israel, including: “Prime Minister Netanyahu has made it clear that we’ll not go away Gaza till we return all 120 of our hostages, residing and deceased.”
The Hostages and Lacking Individuals Households Discussion board, which advocates for the hostages, condemned Mr. Netanyahu’s feedback within the interview, saying that failing to advance the cease-fire proposal “abandons 120 hostages and violates the state’s ethical obligation to its residents.”
“The households of the hostages is not going to enable the federal government and its chief to again away from their elementary commitments to our family members’ destiny,” the group mentioned in a press release. “The duty and responsibility to return all hostages lies with the prime minister.”
Johnatan Reiss and Adam Rasgon contributed reporting.
