Half a year since the war began, the Prime Minister reiterated his commitment to seeing the war through and addressed its various challenges.
Regarding international pressure to end the war even temporarily, Netanyahu said " It is not Israel that is preventing a deal. Hamas is preventing a deal. Its extreme demands are designed to bring about a ceasefire and leave it intact, to ensure its survival, existence and ability to endanger our citizens and soldiers. Capitulation to Hamas's demands would allow it to try and repeat the crimes of October 7 again and again, as it has promised to do.
"Hamas hopes that external and internal pressure will cause Israel to capitulate to these extreme demands. That will not happen. Israel is prepared for a deal; Israel is not prepared to surrender. Instead of the international pressure being directed at Israel, which is only causing Hamas to harden its positions, the pressure of the international community needs to be directed at Hamas. This will advance the release of the hostages."
Netanyahu also repeated his insistence on the government's war aims, saying "Citizens of Israel, there is no war more just than this one, and we are determined to achieve total victory, to return all of our hostages, to complete the elimination of Hamas in the entire Gaza Strip including Rafah and to ensure that Gaza never again constitutes a threat to Israel."
He finished by reminding Israeli citizens of the need for unity: "Countries rise amidst unity and fall amidst rifts. Let our enemies not be mistaken: The decisive majority of the people is united on the need to continue fighting until victory. A majority of the people, myself included, condemns all displays of violence among us – disturbances and violations of the law, running over demonstrators or attacking police officers, and wild incitement to violence and murder on social media. We will stand united. We will strike our enemies. We will eliminate Hamas. We will free our hostages and with G-d's help, we will bring total victory."
