Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded this evening to the statement by Hamas that it would not negotiate a deal for the release of hostages until there was a complete ceasefire. “We are fighting until victory,” Netanyahu said. “We will not stop the war until we complete all of its goals – complete elimination of Hamas, and release of all our hostages.”
“The choice I offer Hamas is very simple: surrender or die,” Netanyahu added. “There is not and there will not be any other choice. And after we eliminate Hamas, I will act with all my strength to ensure that Gaza will no longer represent a threat to Israel. Not Hamastan and not Fatahstan.”
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At the end of a tour of the Hof Ashkelon regional council, National Unity party head Benny Gantz, who joined Netanyahu’s government at the beginning of the war, said, “The operation in Gaza continues, the damage to Hamas is becoming steadily deeper, and it will continue deep into the territory and in different stages.
“There is no intention of halting the fighting until we bring back our hostages and change the reality in the south, and also in the north. Hamas’s refusal to release hostages from captivity after more than 70 days, among them old people, sick people, and women, while endangering their lives, is further proof that the Hamas threat must be removed, Gantz said.
Meanwhile, the IDF reports that it has completed the dismantling of Hamas’s core capabilities in the Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza City and has achieved operational control of the neighborhood. The operation in Shejaiya involved heavy, face-to-face combat.
Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on December 21, 2023.
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2023.
