Netanyahu is “not entirely sure” that Hamas military leader in Gaza has been killed

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He stresses that Deif was the “architect” of the October 7 attack

Netanyahu says he has not moved “one millimeter” in the negotiations, while Hamas has asked for 29 changes

13 (EUROPA PRESS)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at a press conference on Saturday to report on the attack on Al Mawasi, near Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip, and explained that he was not “totally sure” that the target, Hamas military wing commander Mohamed Deif, had died in the attack. Gazan authorities reported 90 dead, most of them women and children.

“It is not entirely certain that Deif and (Rafa’a) Salameh have been eliminated, but I can guarantee that we will get to the top of Hamas one way or another,” he said in what was Netanyahu’s first official press conference since March. He thus proposed that they would go after Hamas leaders “from the first to the last.”

Netanyahu stressed that Deif is “one of the leaders of the October 7 massacre,” the “architect” of the attack. “His hands are stained with the blood of many Israelis,” he explained.

The Israeli president appeared at the headquarters of the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv. There he explained that he gave his approval for the attack after receiving assurances that there were no hostages in the area, about possible collateral damage and about the type of bombs that would be used.

He also stressed that this attack was possible because they had overcome the pressure to end the offensive prematurely and the work of the intelligence services.

Netanyahu has reiterated the “war’s” unavoidable objectives: “destroying Hamas, liberating the hostages” and avoiding any future threat from Gaza.

For the president, this operation also serves as a message of deterrence to Iran in the face of the “existential threat” that has weighed on Israel since October 7. Victory over Hamas is “a primary and crucial condition for victory over the Iranian axis as a whole, against the axis of evil as a whole.”

In this regard, he stressed that there are “cracks” in Hamas that have been detected in recent weeks, “weaknesses” as a result of the Israeli military offensive. Saturday’s attack is a new milestone, “whatever the results.”

29 CHANGES

On the other hand, regarding the negotiations for the release of the hostages, Netanyahu has assured that the Israeli position has not shifted “one millimeter” from the conditions for an agreement according to the proposal put forward by US President Joe Biden, while Hamas has asked for 29 changes.

“I have not moved one millimeter from what President Biden praised. I have not added conditions and I have not removed conditions, but I have not allowed Hamas to move one millimeter either,” he argued. “They should know that Hamas wanted to include 29 changes to the proposal and I told the negotiating team and the Americans: not a single change,” he stressed.

The proposal contains, however, four “fundamental” conditions: Israel’s right to “continue the war” until its objectives are met; preventing the entry of weapons from Egypt, which implies “maintaining control of the Philadelphia Corridor and the Rafah crossing”; preventing the return of armed terrorists and weapons to northern Gaza; and, finally, the return of as many hostages alive as possible “in the first phase of the proposal.”

Netanyahu has argued that military pressure and diplomatic efforts from a position of “firmness” have already allowed the return of 135 hostages, and has therefore defended the need to maintain both. In fact, he has stressed that in recent weeks there has been progress as a result of this military pressure and that in previous weeks there was no progress because the military pressure had been “insufficient.”

“That is why we had to enter Rafah” despite pressure from the United States and other countries against it and Washington’s “understandable” decision to “reduce the supply of weapons” as a result, Netanyahu said.

At least 90 people have been killed and 300 injured in an Israeli airstrike on the Al Mawasi displaced persons camp, west of the city of Khan Yunis, which the Israeli army initially described as a “safe zone” for displaced people from the enclave.

The death toll from the military offensive launched by Israel against the Gaza Strip nine months ago, following the attacks of 7 October, has now exceeded 38,400, while the number of wounded is close to 88,500, according to official figures from the Gaza Ministry of Health, controlled by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).