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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Photo/REUTERS
TEL AVIV – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his pessimism about the possibility of reaching an agreement to stop fighting in Gaza and free the prisoners.
He accused Hamas of obstructing those efforts instead of making efforts to resolve them.
In a press conference on Thursday (29/2/2024), at military headquarters in Tel-Aviv, Netanyahu said, “We are facing the imaginary and unrealistic demands of Hamas.”
He added, “Hamas knows its demands are imaginary and is not even trying to bring them to an agreement. That's the situation.”
He emphasized, “We are all hopeful, but I give you the assessment at this point… We continue to act, continue to hope, but I cannot promise at this time that an agreement will be reached.”
Netanyahu noted such promises “have no cover.” He promised Israel would return all hostages held in Gaza, “with or without a framework”.
He demanded that the names of all the hostages be released before he would agree to a hostage deal.
Netanyahu announced that the Israeli military was preparing to operate against the remaining Hamas battalions in Rafah and the central Gaza Strip.
“We will do this by evacuating civilians from combat zones,” he said, adding, “We will do this by meeting their humanitarian needs, and we will do this by following international law.”