Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday in an interview that his war against Hamas in Gaza was entering a new, less intense phase. Photo by Debbie Hill/ UPI | License Photo
The latest battle in the war between Israel and Hamas is about to wind down, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday.
The most “intense phase of the war with Hamas is about to end,” Netanyahu said. Advertisement
The prime minister cautioned that this action does not mean the overall war in Gaza will end, but that the Israeli military will shift its focus to Israel’s northern border with Lebanon.
“It doesn’t mean that the war is going to end, but the war in its current stage is going to end in Rafah. This is true. We will continue mowing the grass later,” Netanyahu told Channel 14 Television in his first one-on-one interview with local Israeli media since Oct. 7, CNN reported.
Netanyahu said in the interview that he is ready to make “a partial deal” with Hamas and that he will make concessions about returning some hostages, but will persist in his stated mission “to achieve the goal of eliminating Hamas.”
“I’m not ready to give that up,” Netanyahu said of his mission to eliminate Hamas. Advertisement
Netanyahu added that “after the end of the intense phase, we will have the possibility to shift some of the power north, and we will do it.”
“First of all, for protection purposes, and secondly, to bring our residents home as well. If we can do it politically, that would be great. If not, we will do it in another way, but we will bring everyone back home — all the residents of the north and the south,” he added.
Netanyahu has come under increasing pressure from the United States and other ally nations, including those that have been supporters of Israel, as the death toll in Gaza approaches 40,000. Israel launched the war against Iran-backed Hamas in retaliation for the militia’s rogue terror attack on Oct. 7 that killed more than 1,200 Israelis and saw another roughly 250 kidnapped.
U.S. President Joe Biden has called on Netanyahu to moderate the Israel Defense Force’s attacks on Gaza, which have included the shelling of a food aid operation which killed seven aid workers from the World Central Kitchen in April.
Gazans have been forced to evacuate and move south as the IDF attacks have continued, including to Rafah. Despite international condemnation, Israeli forces invaded that town, too, displacing hundreds of thousands of Gazans, many who had already been displaced, some more than once. Advertisement
