The intense phase of Israel’s war against Hamas “is coming to an end,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview on Israeli television Sunday night, though he stressed that this did not mean the conflict was coming to an end.
After the operation in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city and the final staging post of Israel’s ground offensive, the prime minister said, Israel will continue to “mow the lawn” – a term long used in Israeli security circles to denote the use of force to limit the resurgence of militant organizations.
Netanyahu’s remarks were the latest suggestion from senior Israeli officials that the war could soon enter a period of change.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was in Washington for meetings with Biden administration officials, during which he said they would also discuss the “transition to ‘Phase C’ in Gaza.”
While the Israeli military claims it is close to dismantling or seriously deteriorating Hamas’s military infrastructure, the government has not proposed any clear plan for the administration of Gaza after the war.
Netanyahu suggested in the interview that a postwar civil administration would involve local Palestinians, hopefully with the help of moderate Arab nations. The Israeli military would maintain overall security control of the enclave, he said.
The prime minister continued to rule out a proposal put forward by the Biden administration: handing over Gaza to the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in parts of the occupied West Bank.
To get to the “day after Hamas,” Netanyahu said, “first we must eliminate Hamas” — reiterating his long-held position that the armed group must be completely eradicated, a goal that many experts say is unattainable.
The prime minister’s comments were made in a 44-minute interview on “The Patriots,” a populist and often controversial late-night talk show on Channel 14, a right-wing Israeli television station that caters to Israel’s voter base. Netanyahu.
Since the war began, Netanyahu has rarely been interviewed in Hebrew for an Israeli audience. He has faced criticism nationwide for granting frequent interviews to American networks while interacting with Israelis mostly through sporadic television statements and press conferences or video clips.
During the interview, Netanyahu also addressed the stalemate in ceasefire negotiations, at one point suggesting that he was willing to reach a “partial” deal for the return of only some of the 120 hostages held in Gaza, a claim his office quickly retracted.
The prime minister said he was ready to accept a temporary truce and the release of some of the hostages, before resuming the war. That proposal appeared to contradict an Israeli proposal approved last month by Netanyahu and his war cabinet for a phased deal that would release all the hostages and usher in a permanent ceasefire — a proposal that was endorsed by President Biden and the Israeli cabinet. United Nations Security Council.
But in another part of Sunday’s interview, Netanyahu said he was determined to bring back all remaining hostages, at least a third of whom Israel says have died in captivity.
In a brief statement after the interview, Netanyahu’s office said it was Hamas that opposed the deal, not Israel, adding: “Prime Minister Netanyahu has made it clear that we will not leave Gaza until we return all 120 hostages, dead and alive.”
The Forum on Hostages and Missing Families, which supports the hostages’ cause, condemned Netanyahu’s comments in the interview, saying that the failure to advance the ceasefire proposal “abandons 120 hostages and violates the state’s moral obligation to its citizens.”
“The families of the hostages will not allow the government and its leader to retreat from their fundamental commitments to the fate of our loved ones,” the group said in a statement. “The responsibility and duty to return all hostages lies with the prime minister.”
