Washington/Jerusalem. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reiterated that his country is not trying to take over Gaza, but our goal is to demilitarize and de-radicalize the Hamas-controlled territory.
He made the comments during a CBS News interview on Thursday, in which he also emphasized that Israel is trying to wipe out Hamas “with minimal civilian casualties.”
“We want overall military responsibility to prevent the resurgence of terror… We don’t want to take over. That’s not our goal, but our goal is to make sure what happens there is different.”
“To do that we have to demilitarize Gaza and we have to deradicalize Gaza,” the prime minister said.
He also said that liberating Palestinians from Hamas will give them a better future.
Regarding the Israeli military raid on Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, Netanyahu said there were “strong indications” that Hamas was holding hostages inside the hospital after the October 7 attack.
“We had strong indications that he was being held at Shifa Hospital, which is one of the reasons we entered the hospital,” he told CBS News.
“If they were (there), they were taken out,” the Prime Minister said. He said his government had “intelligence about the hostages”.
According to officials, 237 people are being held captive in Gaza, including Israelis, foreign citizens and children.
So far, four civilian hostages have been released by Hamas, and one female soldier has been rescued by Israeli forces.
Israel has stated that Hamas maintains a command center beneath the hospital, as well as using the medical complex as a base.
However, the allegations have been repeatedly denied by the terrorist group.
When Netanyahu was asked about the proposed prisoner swap deal and how close Israel is to the release of the hostages, he told CBS News: “Closer than we were before we started the ground operations.” “Are close… (the ground offensive has begun) to put pressure on Hamas for a ceasefire.”
“If we can get our hostages back we will have a temporary ceasefire. I don’t think that will serve the purpose.”
