Israel’s Prime Minister said this Sunday that the country is “one step away from victory” in the war against Hamas, on a day that marks six months of conflict with the Palestinian Islamist movement in the Gaza Strip.
“We are one step away from victory, but the price that will have to be paid is painful,” Chief Executive Benjamin Netanyahu admitted before a meeting with his government’s military cabinet, as quoted by Agence France-Presse.
Netanyahu also confirmed that on Israel’s part, “there will be no ceasefire without the return of the hostages” who remain in the hands of Hamas, given the possibility of the Israeli delegation in Cairo participating in new truce negotiations through international mediators. USA, Qatar, Egypt.
“I have made it clear to the international community: there will be no ceasefire without the return of the abducted people. This simply will not happen,” the prime minister said, recalling that the administration of American President Joe Biden shares this position.
Netanyahu also blamed Iran for the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that killed 1,200 people on Israeli soil and sparked the war, and called on Israeli citizens to unite “in the need to continue fighting until complete victory” in the Gaza Strip.
“This war has revealed to the world what Israel has always known: Iran, through its proxies, is behind the attack on us. northern border), Houthis (in Yemen), militias in Iraq and Syria, and other attacks,” he added.
The ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip was sparked by an attack on Israeli soil by the Islamist group Hamas on October 7, 2023.
Since then, Israel has launched an offensive in the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 33,000 people, according to Hamas, which has ruled the small Palestinian enclave since 2007.
Israel’s retaliation is causing a serious humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, where more than 1.1 million people are in a “situation of catastrophic famine” already claiming casualties – the “highest number ever recorded” by the UN in a study of world food security.
The official death toll in the Gaza Strip reached 33,175 this Sunday, the Health Ministry of the Gaza government, controlled by the radical Islamist group Hamas, said in a statement.