Addressing Israeli citizens on national television Saturday night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly admonished the throngs of protesters who have long demanded an end to the war in Gaza in hopes of getting Hamas to release its hostages.
Again and again, he insisted that his doubters and haters had it all wrong.
“Throughout the entire war, there were those who claimed ceaselessly that we would not be able to get back all the hostages without completely withdrawing from the Gaza Strip,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “I thought differently, and I acted differently.”
“‘That’s too good to be true,’ they said,” Mr. Netanyahu added moments later. “I’m telling you, it’s true. And with the help of God, it will happen very soon.”
Mr. Netanyahu has faced months of rising pressure from many Israelis over his war strategy, especially his push for a new military campaign that began last month in Gaza City. Many relatives of the hostages have expressed fear that such action could endanger the captives’ lives, and polls show that many Israelis are skeptical, after nearly two years of war, that the government can truly eliminate Hamas.
At least 41 hostages have died in captivity in Gaza, including seven executed by their captors as Israeli soldiers neared and four killed in Israeli airstrikes, according to Israeli officials and the public findings of military investigations.
Mr. Netanyahu has maintained that the blame lies with Hamas for failing to reach a truce. In his remarks on Saturday, he also addressed another critique. “I’ve heard talk that Hamas was ready a year, two years ago to release the hostages without a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip,” he said. “I tell you, that is a lie.”
It was only now that Hamas had become willing to release the hostages, he contended, and it was only the military and political pressure that Mr. Netanyahu had applied, in tandem with President Trump, that had gotten the militant group to budge.
It was barely a six-minute speech, and it was highly defensive, in political terms. Though Mr. Netanyahu commended Israel’s soldiers for their bravery and citizens for their steadfastness, and acknowledged the pain and suffering of the bereaved and wounded, his main goal appeared to be pushing back against his critics.
“I withstood immense pressures from home and abroad to end the war,” Mr. Netanyahu said. He argued that every subsequent Israeli military achievement had flowed from that defiance: conquering Gaza, assassinating Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, and even Israel’s destruction of much of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure with the assistance of the United States.
Mr. Netanyahu said that he hoped to limit negotiations with Hamas “to a few days.”
Either way, he said, once Israel’s hostages are released, “Hamas will be disarmed and Gaza will be demilitarized.” And that would happen “either diplomatically, through Trump’s plan, or militarily by us,” he said — a clear threat to resort again to military action if Hamas does not comply.
David M. Halbfinger is on his second assignment as Jerusalem bureau chief of The New York Times, leading coverage of Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. After his first tour there, from 2017 to 2021, he served as Politics editor, overseeing coverage of national politics, threats to democracy and the 2024 presidential campaign.
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