Overwhelming military force is the quickest way to end the Gaza war and ensure the return of the hostages, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters in Tel Aviv Tuesday night amid international concern about the mounting death toll in the enclave.
“I say from here to our friends in the world who are pushing for a quick end to the war: our only way to end the war, and to end it quickly, is to use overwhelming force against Hamas – and destroy it.
“If our friends want to help shorten the war, which is also their war against the barbarism that threatens to sweep the world, they simply have to stand firmly by our side,” Netanyahu said.
The combined pressure of such an IDF campaign in Gaza combined with a determined diplomatic one is the only way to secure the release of the Hamas-held captives, Netanyahu stressed.
“We’re working to bring all the captives home safely, and I mean everyone,” Netanyahu said.
Israel estimates 138 hostages remain in captivity
Israel has calculated that there are some 138 captives remaining of the close to 250 that Hamas seized during its infiltration into southern Israel on October 7, during which it also killed over 1,200 people.
He spoke hours after he and the war cabinet met with relatives of the hostages.
“I told the families that we are sparing no effort to return their loved ones. Returning all our captives is one of the three overarching goals we set for the war, and these goals serve each other,” Netanyahu said.
He recalled that Israel had already secured the release of 110 hostages. Eighty of those were Israeli women and children freed through a deal that ended prematurely on Friday morning.
“We managed to bring home 110 of the captives through a powerful ground campaign like no other and a sustained diplomatic effort.
“And I tell you – this is the only way to return the captives who remain in the captivity of Hamas - and we are obliged to do so,” Netanyahu said.
The IDF has been instructed to continue the war, Netanyahu said.
“Our fighters are expanding ground operations against Hamas everywhere in the Gaza Strip – including in the south of the Strip. Tonight we operated there with tremendous force. The ground shook in Khan Yunis, the ground shook in Jabalya. We surrounded them both. There is no place that we are not reaching,” he said.
“We will fight to the end, until the absolute victory,” he said.
That victory is calculated by the return of the hostages, Hamas’s destruction and ensuring that Gaza does not pose a continued threat to Israel.
“No entity in Gaza will support terror, educate for terror, or finance terror,” he said.
Once the war is over, Gaza must be demilitarized and remain under IDF security control, he said.
“No international power can be responsible for this [Gaza security]. We have seen what happened in other places that brought in international forces,” Netanyahu said.
“I am not ready to close my eyes and accept any other arrangement.
PM to int'l community: "where the hell were you" on Hamas rape?
Netanyahu thundered against the failure of human rights groups and the United Nations to immediately condemn Hamas’s acts of rape and sexual mutilation of its female victims during its October 7,
“Were you quiet because we were talking about Jewish women?” Netanyahu asked.
In English, he asked the international community, “Where the hell are you?”
“I say to the women’s rights organizations, to the human rights organizations. You have heard of the rape of the Israeli women, horrible atrocities, sexual mutilations” at Hamas’ hands?
“I expect all civilized leaders, governments, nations to speak up against this atrocity,” Netanyahu said.
He specifically called out the United Nations which condemned the sexual violence only last week after a protracted campaign by Israel and activist groups.
Speaking at a political fundraiser in Boston, US President Joe Biden said accounts of “unimaginable cruelty” by Hamas toward its female victims had been shared over the past few weeks.
“Reports of women raped – repeatedly raped – and their bodies being mutilated while still alive, of women’s corpses being desecrated, Hamas terrorists inflicting as much pain and suffering on women and girls as possible and then murdering them. It is appalling,” Biden said.
Qatar, which mediated the hostage deal, said Tuesday it was working to repair a collapsed truce agreement between Israel and Hamas,
“We are constantly working to renew [the truce] and to alleviate the burden of our people in the Gaza Strip, but truces are not an alternative for a comprehensive ceasefire,” Qatar’s Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, said in a speech to Gulf leaders gathered in the Qatari capital Doha.
Sheikh Tamim, called on the UN Security Council to force Israel to return to the negotiating table over the war in Gaza, saying the inaction by the international community in halting the conflict was “shameful.” Hamas has asserted that close to 16,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza war-related violence.
“It is shameful for the international community to allow this heinous crime to continue for nearly two months, during which the systematic and deliberate killing of innocent civilians continues, including women and children,” he said.
Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday’s summit in Doha was aimed at forming a united approach to end the war in Gaza across the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
“Now the ceiling should be raised to talk about a sustainable truce that could lead to ending this war,” Majed Al-Ansari, spokesperson for Qatar’s foreign ministry, told Al Jazeera.
Reuters contributed to this report.