PM Announces 2nd Stage of War, with Broad Ground Offensive
Alongside Gallant and Gantz, Netanyahu says decision to expand ground operation unanimous; says not sure Iran planned Oct. 7 but Hamas and Hezbollah wouldn’t exist without it.
As sirens sounded in central Israel on Saturday evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the second stage of the campaign to destroy Hamas had begun with an expanding ground offensive into the Gaza Strip.
Projecting an image of unity alongside Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and fellow war cabinet minister Benny Gantz at a Tel Aviv press conference, Netanyahu announced: “This is the second stage of the war whose goals are clear — to destroy Hamas’ governing and military capabilities and to bring the hostages home.”
He added that the decision to begin ground operations had been made unanimously, both by the war cabinet and the security cabinet.
“Broadening the ground offensive does not clash in any way with our ability to return the hostages,” he argued.
He was also asked about a potential “all for all” deal that would see all Hamas-held hostages freed and all Palestinian security prisoners in Israeli jails released, a notion Hamas leaders have increasingly called for.
“We are discussing the issue,” he said, without going into details, and added that he cannot share intelligence and considerations that the cabinet is debating. Discussing the terms of a potential deal publicly “will not help to realize” one, he added.
Ground forces, including infantry, combat engineering forces and tanks, entered Gaza on Friday night and remained there on Saturday, operating deeper inside the Hamas-run territory than previous limited incursions.
“Our commanders and soldiers fighting in enemy territory know that the nation and the national leadership stand behind them,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu said troops that he has met in the field are determined to make Hamas pay for its actions on Oct. 7.
“They are determined to eradicate this evil from the world, for our existence and, I add — for all of humanity.”
Netanyahu continued: “We always said, ‘Never Again’. Never Again’ is now.”
The prime called the abduction of the hostages — including civilians of all ages — “a crime against humanity.”
And he denounced those who “dare to accuse our soldiers of war crimes” as hypocrites and liars.
“The IDF is the most moral army in the world; the IDF does everything to avoid harm to non-combatants,” he said, again calling on residents of northern Gaza to head to the southern Gaza Strip, as Israel has repeatedly done in recent weeks.
Netanyahu accused Hamas of war crimes, saying it “uses citizens as human shields,” uses hospitals as terror headquarters and takes fuel meant for hospitals to supply its war.
On Saturday, the army said it would start allowing significantly more humanitarian aid to enter the southern Gaza Strip from Egypt.
The IDF hopes that the additional food, water and medical supplies will encourage more Palestinians to leave the northern part of the Gaza Strip for the south.
Israel has repeatedly warned that it is heavily targeting Gaza City and other areas in northern Gaza, where Hamas is believed to have its main bases of operations and extensive underground installations, many of them located under the city. The IDF says it will not allow fuel into the Gaza Strip, as it says it is used by Hamas to manage the fighting against Israel.
Netanyahu said the initial stage of the war — launched after Hamas terrorists burst through the border fence and slaughtered 1,400 Israelis, over a thousand of them civilians, on Oct. 7 — had been a massive air campaign “to allow our ground forces to go in as safely as possible.”
“We eliminated countless murderers, including mass murderers. We destroyed countless headquarters and terrorist infrastructure. We are only at the beginning,” he said.
Netanyahu added that the war will be “long and hard, and we are ready. It is our second War of Independence. We will fight to defend the homeland. We will fight and we will not withdraw.”
“Israel is fighting not only its war, but humanity’s war against the barbarians,” he said.
“Our allies in the Western world, and our partners in the Arab world, know that if we do not win, they are next in line in the campaign of conquest and murder from the axis of evil,” he says.
He characterized the war as one of “light over darkness, life over death. This is the mission of our lives and my life.”
Taking his first questions from reporters since the Hamas massacres, Netanyahu refused to directly answer whether he bears responsibility for the Palestinian terror group’s deadly onslaught.
Israel is fighting not only its war, but humanity’s war against the barbarians. Our allies in the Western world, and our partners in the Arab world, know that if we do not win, they are next in line in the campaign of conquest and murder from the axis of evil.
“After the war everyone will have to give answers, myself included,” he said, repeating comments he made earlier in the week.
But, he stressed, “There was an awful debacle.”
He also refused to commit to setting up a state commission of inquiry — the most powerful and consequential investigative panel — to investigate the failings that enabled the Hamas atrocities. “There will not be a stone left unturned,” he said, adding that his focus right now was only on winning and “saving the state.”
Netanyahu was also asked whether his government’s judicial overhaul efforts had distracted attention from security challenges, and said the legislative proposals to weaken the courts are “no longer on the agenda,” and that disagreements had been resolved in the face of war.
comments