Israel must 'complete' defeat of Hamas to free hostages

RTÉ News​

2 days ago

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel must "complete" the defeat of Hamas to free hostages held in Gaza, a day after Israeli media reported the army could occupy the entire territory.
"It is necessary to complete the defeat of the enemy in Gaza, to free all our hostages and to ensure that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel," Mr Netanyahu said during a visit to an army training facility.
Israeli media reported that Mr Netanyahu was expected to sit down in Jerusalem later with the chief of staff and the defence minister, and that he was considering ordering the total occupation of the Palestinian territory.
The timing of the meeting has not been officially confirmed.
"Netanyahu wants the Israeli army to conquer the entire Gaza Strip," said a report on public broadcaster Kan.
Mr Netanyahu said yesterday that he would convene the cabinet later in the week to approve new instructions.
"Several cabinet members who spoke with the prime minister confirmed that he has decided to extend the fight to areas where hostages might be held," Kan reported.
The private daily Maariv declared: "The die is cast. We're en route for the total conquest of Gaza."
However, some major media outlets such as Channel 12 have questioned whether the rumoured expansion of military operations is merely a negotiating tactic, and whether Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir would oppose such a decision.
"The Chief of Staff is required to express his professional opinion clearly and unequivocally to the political leadership. I am convinced that he will do so," Foreign Minister Gideon Saar wrote on X.
While a reconquest plan has not been officially confirmed, it has already drawn an angry response from the Palestinian Authority and Gaza's Hamas-run government, which insisted it will not shift its position on ceasefire talks.
"The ball is in the hands of... (Israel) and the Americans," senior Hamas official Husam Badran said, adding that the militant group wanted to "end the war and the famine".
'Updated strategy'
Addressing a cabinet meeting with the war into its 22nd month, the Israeli leader told ministers that later in the week he would instruct the military on how "to achieve the three war objectives we have set".
Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 and the Jerusalem Post newspaper quoted officials in Mr Netanyahu's office saying that the "updated strategy" would be to re-occupy all of Gaza, including areas in Gaza City where the military believes hostages are being held.
However, the Palestinian Authority's foreign ministry denounced what it called a "leaked" plan and urged the international community to intervene to quash any new military occupation.
Mr Netanyahu is facing mounting domestic and international pressure to bring the remaining hostages in Gaza home and allow much more aid into the starving territory.
Israel - backed by the United States and Panama - is preparing to convene a UN Security Council meeting to highlight the fate of the hostages.
Mr Netanyahu reiterated yesterday that Israel's three war goals remained "the defeat of the enemy, the release of our hostages and the promise that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel".
His statement came after hundreds of retired Israeli security chiefs wrote to US President Donald Trump to urge him to convince the Israeli prime minister to end the war.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar said ahead of the UN meeting that "the world must put an end to the phenomenon of kidnapping civilians".
"It must be front and centre on the world stage," he added.
Of the 251 hostages abducted during Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel, 49 are still being held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
The UN session was called after Palestinian militant groups last week published three videos showing hostages Rom Braslavski and Evyatar David appearing weak and emaciated, causing shock in Israel.
Mr Netanyahu said he had asked the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to provide food and medical treatment to the Israeli captives.
Hamas's armed wing said it was willing to allow access to the hostages in exchange for opening aid corridors into all of Gaza, where UN-mandated experts have warned famine is unfolding.
Mr Netanyahu's government has faced repeated accusations by relatives of hostages and other critics that it has not done enough to rescue the captives.
"Netanyahu is leading Israel and the hostages to ruin," said the Hostages and Missing Families Forum campaign group.
It said: "For 22 months, the public has been sold the illusion that military pressure and intense fighting will bring the hostages back.
"The truth must be said: expanding the war endangers the lives of the hostages, who are already in immediate mortal danger."
Mediation efforts led by Qatar, Egypt and the United States have failed to secure a truce.
Hundreds of retired Israeli security officials including former heads of intelligence agencies have urged Mr Trump to pressure their own government to end the war.
"It is our professional judgement that Hamas no longer poses a strategic threat to Israel," the former officials wrote in an open letter shared with the media yesterday.
The war "is leading the state of Israel to lose its security and identity", said Ami Ayalon, former director of the Shin Bet security service, in a video released to accompany the letter.
The letter argued the Israeli military "has long accomplished the two objectives that could be achieved by force: dismantling Hamas's military formations and governance".
"The third, and most important, can only be achieved through a deal: bringing all the hostages home," it added.
The October 2023 Hamas attack that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to a tally of official figures.
Israel's campaign in Gaza has killed at least 60,933 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, which are deemed reliable by the UN.
Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli fire yesterday killed at least 19 Palestinians, including nine who were waiting to collect food aid from a site in central Gaza.
'Heart-rending and intolerable'
In Gaza City, Umm Osama Imad was mourning a relative she said was killed while trying to reach an aid distribution point.
"We are starving ... He went to bring flour for his family," she said, adding "the flour is stained with blood. We don't want the flour anymore. Enough."
UN rights chief Volker Turk said "the images of people starving in Gaza are heart-rending and intolerable".
"That we have reached this stage is an affront to our collective humanity," he added.
He called on Israel to urgently allow aid into the territory, adding that denying it "may amount to a war crime".
On Sunday, President Michael D Higgins called on the United Nations Security Council to do more for the people of Gaza.
"I cannot really stand in a public venue and give a public speech and speak about our language when I see such incredible, incredible destruction of an entire people taking place on our television screens every evening," he said at the opening of an event at the weekend.
He said it was "outrageous" that there were 6,000 trucks with enough food for three months waiting to get in to Gaza and that they are being blocked.