Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on June 23, 2023, that the phase of intense fighting against Hamas was coming close to an end but the war would not end until the Islamist group no longer controls the Palestinian enclave. Once the intense fighting with Gaza is over, the PM said Israel will deploy more forces along the border with Lebanon, where fighting with Hezbollah has escalated.
“After the intense phase is finished, we will have the possibility to move part of our forces to the north. And we will do this. First and foremost, for defensive purposes. And secondly to bring our evacuated resident’s home,” Netanyahu said as per an Israeli media agency. “If we can, we can do this diplomatically. If not, the we will do it another way. But we will bring the residents home,” he said.
Many Israeli towns close to the northern border with Lebanon have been evacuated during the fighting. Asked when the intense phase of fighting against Hamas will come to an end, Netanyahu answered, “Very soon.” But the military will still operate in Gaza. “I am not willing to end the war and leave Hamas as it is,” he said. Netanyahu also reiterated his rejection to the idea that the West Bank based Palestinian Authority run Gaza in place of Hamas.
Tens of thousands have been displaced from Northern Israel which has seen near daily exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and Lebanese Hezbollah militants since the war in Gaza began. Netanyahu said he would not agree to any deal that stipulates and end to the war in Gaza indicating that he was open to a partial deal that would facilitate the return of hostages still held there, if not all.
The goal is to return the kidnapped and uproot the Hamas regime in Gaza, he said. United States officials have raised doubts over the Jewish nation’s goal to completely destroying Hamas and on June 21, 2024, the Israel’s top Army spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said Hamas cannot be eliminated. He said Hamas is an ideology and “we cannot eliminate an ideology.” To say that we are going to make Hamas disappear is akin to “throwing sands in the people’s eyes.”
The Gaza Strip has been gripped by more than eight months of war since Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an international news media tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel’s military offensive on Gaza has since killed at least 37,598 people, also mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. Tens of thousands of Israelis have consistently rallied against Netanyahu and his government, demanding early elections and a deal to return hostages. But Netanyahu said that if his government falls, “a left-wing government will be established here, which will do something immediately: establish a Palestinian state that is a Palestinian terrorist state that will endanger our existence.”
