Benjamin Netanyahu initially rejects ending the Gaza war

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refuses to end the war in Gaza at this time. “If we end the war now, Hamas will come back, recover and attack us again,” Netanyahu said at a news conference in Jerusalem on Monday. The “catastrophe of October 7th” should not be allowed to happen again; Israel fought for that, as well as for the return of the hostages. Netanyahu reiterated that the “annihilation” of Hamas is Israel’s goal and that this goal has not yet been achieved.

The Gaza War was triggered by the unprecedented major attack on Israel by the radical Islamic Palestinian organization Hamas on October 7, 2023. According to Israeli figures, Islamist fighters killed 1,208 people and kidnapped 251 others as hostages in the Gaza Strip. 96 hostages are still being held in the area, although 34 of them are said to be dead.

Since the Hamas attack, Israel has taken massive military action in the Gaza Strip. According to the Hamas-controlled health authority, more than 44,700 people have been killed so far. The information cannot be independently verified.

Egypt and Qatar, as well as the USA, have tried in vain in recent months to bring about a new ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Last weekend, however, it was announced from those close to Hamas that negotiations for a ceasefire in the Gaza war would “very likely” be resumed this week. It is also about a “prisoner exchange”, i.e. the release of hostages and the simultaneous release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons.

Meanwhile, the UN said the Israeli army’s advance into Syria’s buffer zone in the Golan Heights violated the 1974 agreement between the two states. The Israeli army is still present in three places in the demilitarized zone, said UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric on Monday at the UN headquarters in New York. The UN pointed out to the Israeli representatives that this meant “a violation of the 1974 dissolution agreement.”

After the overthrow of Syria’s ruler Bashar al-Assad on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered his country’s army to move into the buffer zone on the Golan Heights and take control of this area and “adjacent strategic positions.”

Israel will not allow “any hostile force to establish itself on our border,” said Netanyahu, justifying this action. He declared the agreement with Syria on the buffer zone, which had been in force for decades, to be over.