Netanyahu answers hard questions about Gaza fighting and the hostages

Prime Minister, Many people say nothing is happening, nothing is being done.

That is simply not true. There is fighting, even intense fighting. Unfortunately, we have just lost two more soldiers, two dear heroes, Yaheli and Noam, may their memory be a blessing. We are operating there according to a plan for decisive victory. This has stages. I am convening the cabinet today to discuss the next stage based on a proposal presented by the coordinator. I cannot detail it here.

But we are focused on two missions. One is to return our abductees. Two is to eliminate Hamas. There will be no Hamas there, you must understand this now. There are different tactics for this. I cannot, of course, detail it here. But I can tell you that these are our goals, the release of abductees.

[That being said], we are not giving up on decisive victory. I said this war needs to be won. We are not giving up on that. And the thing that worries me the most is when I hear people [talking about] refusal. They say, "All this fighting is political." What [does that mean?!] Should we leave Hamas inside so that they are on the fences again? Hezbollah will be on the fences? This is political?

It seems they haven't learned the lesson. They haven't learned because exactly this thing, these calls for refusal, this is what encouraged our enemies before October 7th.

Should there be a ceasefire with this?

Anyone who cares about the state, anyone who truly cares about its existence, does not call for refusal. When there were things I didn't like as head of the opposition, I opposed refusal. Among the right-wing public, I spoke out against it with all my might! This is our existence. You are breaking down the IDF, you are destroying the hierarchy. There is no existence for that. And therefore, you must understand, we are in a war. We have not finished the war, we will finish it. We will achieve a full victory in Gaza. Absolute. Yes. I do not give up on this for a moment. And we will do this action with a very united, very powerful army, with very, very, very dedicated soldiers.

Prime Minister, there are those who claim that the entire war is a continuation of the war and the issue of the abductees, that you supposedly don't want to release the abductees, and that it's all a matter of personal survival. What do you say to that?

Well, that's the propaganda line of the propaganda channels and the leftists, their partners on the left, who work like that. It's a propaganda line. Someone writes it in an advertising agency and says that Netanyahu doesn't want to release the abductees. So what? On the first day of the war, a very, very senior person, whom the left values and appreciates greatly, said we would not release even one. And I said "No, we will release them, and we will release them through a combination of military pressure and political pressure."

And with God's help, we have released 147 lives to date. Military pressure is what works, and it's what will work now too. They say, but if you go to release the abductees, yes, yes, you cannot achieve victory. I say the opposite. If you have victory, you will release the abductees. And we are in the stages of victory, stages of decisive victory.

Question about the abduction threat. Many citizens in Israel are worried about this issue. What do you have to say?

We are acting against them. We acted against them in the past, and we will act in the future too. I cannot detail everything. The United States is also operating against them in coordination with us. It's not a quick fix, but there will be blows.

Prime Minister, throughout the war, many fake news and lies have been spread, and you have almost not responded to them at all.

We will start responding to them. Enough, this is part of the war.

Like the claim that you haven't met the families of the abductees that has been circulating throughout the war and other claims.

Well, that's ridiculous. First of all, I met all the abductees in group meetings of one kind or another. But also regarding the families who remain with the living abductees, I have actually spoken or met with each and every one of the families. Sometimes families are split, so you can't reach everyone. I make every effort to reach everyone, and I listen to them.

Listen, it breaks your heart. Breaks your heart. A man thinks about his son, or a mother thinks about her children. There are things there that are heartbreaking. And you really can't describe it. But my commitment is, of course, to do everything to get them out. No one believed that we would currently bring back 80% of our abductees. No one believed it.

And I intend to bring back the remaining 20% as well. But without the military pressure, without the actions we are taking, and without the action of decisive victory, the victory will bring the abductees. The victory will bring the abductees.

Another question. We are a few days after Independence Day, and we see former senior officials from the radical left calling for civil disobedience, for civil war. What do you have to say?

So this is even Ehud Barak now, whom we heard. Ehud Barak, come on, really. Ehud Barak is a person who has lost all restraint and all conscience. I'm not even talking about whom he's associating with, with his friend. Change the record. This is one state for all of us. We have one destiny. You cannot divide it for political reasons. And you cannot bring crazy ideas and norms here.

What is this? We are a state that was brutally attacked by these murderers, by these monsters. We will strike them, and we will destroy the monsters of Hamas. But do you know what victories we have achieved? Do you know what we have achieved here because we united? We did not go in the direction you spoke about before the war, divisions, civil disobedience, Ehud Barak.

We went in the exact opposite direction. I told our enemies, do not make a mistake about us, because on the day of trial, we will all unite. So we united. And what happened after they attacked us and said this is the end of Israel, we can no longer defend ourselves? Today we are in a situation where we have dealt terrible blows to Hamas.

You see what is happening in Gaza. Maybe you don't see, but I see. We dealt terrible blows to Hezbollah and brought them to their knees. We essentially eliminated Nasrallah, and we eliminated Deif, and we eliminated Haniyeh, and we eliminated Sinwar. And of course, we also overthrew the Assad regime, which was essentially the ruling link connecting Iran to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

I am not telling you that we don't have challenges. We have very big challenges. We really prepared against Iran as well, but in the end, it's Iran. You also have challenges, as you see, and there is still work to be done in Gaza.

But there is no doubt that we have turned the situation around. There is no doubt that Israel has proven itself to be a strong power thanks to our unity, thanks to our fighters, thanks to our commanders. I was in the field, I saw them strong, and they say to me, Bibi, don't give up. Bibi, don't give in. Don't listen to all this noise. Don't listen to the channels.