Differences are growing among Israel's leadership over the best way to win its devastating war with Hamas, less than a week into the conflict's 100th day of fighting. At home.
Gadi Eisenkot, a senior minister in Israel's war cabinet and former chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, said in a television interview Thursday that a ceasefire is the only way to ensure the safe release of the approximately 130 hostages remaining in Israel. He said that there is. It's in the hands of a terrorist group.
In his first public appearance since war broke out in the region in October, Eisenkot told Israel's Channel 12's investigative news program Uvda that “an agreement has been reached regarding a significant cessation of fighting. The hostages will only return alive if they are killed.” .7After Hamas's brutal surprise attack on Israel.
Eisenkot, whose own 25-year-old son was killed in fighting with Hamas in the Gaza Strip in December, said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wanted to ease Israel's punitive military operation, which had been largely in vain. His remarks came within hours of rejecting calls from the White House. regional.
The war is believed to have claimed the lives of well over 1,200 Israelis and as many as 25,000 Palestinians, according to Israeli and Hamas-linked health authorities.
“We will not settle for anything less than absolute victory,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defiantly declared in a nationally televised press conference on Thursday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant have insisted that Israel's war effort will continue until the Islamic extremists are defeated and that the only way to free the remaining hostages is by military force.
In the same speech, Prime Minister Netanyahu flatly rejected renewed calls by the United States to consider establishing a Palestinian state, arguing that such a deal would provide new territory in which it could launch attacks against Israel in the future. .
The prime minister said Israel “must securely control all territory west of the Jordan River,” adding: “That goes against the idea of sovereignty.” What can we do?
“I conveyed this truth to my American friends and put the brakes on attempts to force upon us a reality that endangers the state of Israel,” he said.
In what appears to be a direct contradiction to Prime Minister Netanyahu, Prime Minister Eisenkot said claims that hostage release could be achieved without a ceasefire were “propagating illusions”.
He was also sharply critical of the way the war was unfolding, saying that strategic planning to ensure victory should have been given greater priority from the beginning.
He even questioned whether Israel's efforts to defeat terrorist organizations were as successful as others, including Prime Minister Netanyahu, claimed, saying, “We have not yet reached a strategic outcome, or rather only partially.'' “We have only reached this point,” he said. “We did not overthrow Hamas.”
Israel launched an expanded military operation against Hamas after the terrorist group launched a large-scale surprise missile attack against Hamas on October 7, killing approximately 1,200 Israelis.
Hamas also captured around 240 hostages, including women and children, in the attack, 105 of whom were released during a multi-day ceasefire last November.
