Prime Minister Netanyahu published a statement today (Tuesday), reiterating the government's commitment to both returning the hostages and destroying Hamas' political and military capabilities.
The Prime Minister said that the government unanimously confirmed that Hamas' proposal is very far from Israel's necessary demands. Nevertheless, he also said that the lower level delegation sent to Cairo was instructed to insist on both the release of the hostages and the conditions vital to Israeli security.
Regarding the Rafah operation, Netanyahu said that "the seizure of the crossing of Rafah today is a very important step - an important step on the path to destroying Hamas' remaining military capabilities, including eliminating the four terror battalions in Rafah, and an important step in damaging Hamas' governmental capabilities, as since this morning, we denied Hamas a crossing point which was vital for establishing its regime of terror in the Strip."
