Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said ministers voted overnight to increase military pressure on Hamas, asserting that the methods were “working” to bring about a deal to free hostages held in the Gaza Strip.
“It works because it acts simultaneously,” he said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. “On the one hand, it crushes Hamas’s military and governmental capabilities, and on the other hand, it creates the conditions for the release of our hostages.”
The security cabinet last night voted to increase pressure on Hamas, the premier said. The vote was held as massive nationwide protests continued against his government’s policies on the return of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
Turning to three Hamas “false claims” against Israel’s negotiating posture, Netanyahu said Israel is continuing to negotiate, but that it is being done “under fire,” which he claimed makes it more effective. “We see that there are suddenly cracks,” he said, though Hamas has yet to agree to Israel’s demands for a new, extended ceasefire.
Media reports on Saturday said Hamas had agreed to an Egyptian proposal to release five living hostages in exchange for a 50-day ceasefire in Gaza. According to multiple media reports, this does not meet the demands of Israel, which is insisting on the return of 10 or 11 living hostages to resume the truce, based on a previous proposal by US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff.
Israel on Saturday confirmed it had received the proposal from mediating countries and sent a counterproposal “in full coordination with the US.”
Israel is also willing to talk about “the final stage” of a hostage release-ceasefire deal with Hamas, Netanyahu insisted, countering what he called the second Hamas lie about the negotiations.
The prime minister had previously refused to enter talks on the second phase of a ceasefire deal reached in January, which would involve discussing the end to the war. Instead, he pushed for an extension of the first phase of the deal. Hamas refused, and Israel renewed intensive military operations throughout Gaza on March 18.
“We are ready,” Netanyahu said Sunday. “Hamas will lay down its weapons. Its leaders will be allowed to leave. We will ensure general security in the Gaza Strip and enable the implementation of the Trump plan, the voluntary immigration plan.”
Israel “is ready to discuss it at any time,” he said, referring to the US president’s contentious plan, which triggered global outrage after Trump suggested the US “take over” Gaza and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East,” while forcing its Palestinian inhabitants to relocate to Egypt, Jordan or other countries.
The third Hamas lie, according to Netanyahu, was that he doesn’t care about the hostages: “This is what Hamas puts in its propaganda films in order to create division within us,” he argued.
He said that Israel is “committed to bringing back the hostages,” and claimed that the combination of military and diplomatic pressure is the only thing that has worked, and “not all the empty claims and slogans that I hear in the [TV] studios from the experts.”
The renewal of military operations in Gaza has sparked fears among hostage families that their loved ones’ lives will be in increased danger, as some captives were killed in captivity by strikes, or by their captors when troops appeared to be approaching their location.
Addressing stepped-up attacks in Lebanon, Netanyahu said that Israel “respects” Lebanon and its armed forces, “therefore, we demand from them things that you demand from someone you respect.”
“Lebanon is responsible for what comes out of its territory, and it must ensure that… no attacks against Israel come out of its territory,” Netanyahu said, apparently referring to recent rocket fire over the past week.
He also thanked the US for carrying out strikes against the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, calling it “a big change.”
The US on March 15 launched a new campaign of airstrikes against the rebel group after it threatened to resume attacks on “any Israeli vessel” in nearby maritime routes as a response to Israel stifling the flow of aid into Gaza.
Though former US president Joe Biden also carried out strikes against the Houthis during his term, the campaign was more limited and targeted mostly at launch sites. Under Trump, American fighter jets and drones began bombing high-ranking Houthi personnel and denser city neighborhoods.
“We always value alliances,” Netanyahu said. “We have an alliance with the greatest power in the world, and it stands behind us there and in other arenas without reservation, and with the full appreciation of the citizens and the government of Israel.”