PM Netanyahu: 'I’m not going to agree to end the war before we remove Hamas'

"We’re not going to leave them in power in Gaza, 30 miles from Tel Aviv. It’s not going to happen,” he said amid calls by many to accept a ceasefire-hostage release deal in the Palestinian enclave.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF DECEMBER 20, 2024 23:13

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu seen in the Israeli parliament, December 16, 2024. (photo credit: Chaim Goldberg FLASH90)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he would not "agree to end the war before we remove Hamas" in an interview with Wall Street Journal editorial writer Elliot Kaufman, which was later published in the US newspaper on Friday.

"We’re not going to leave them in power in Gaza, 30 miles from Tel Aviv. It’s not going to happen,” he said amid calls by many to accept a lasting ceasefire-hostage release deal in the Palestinian enclave. The Journal op-ed notes that the Israeli prime minister only envisions such a deal to be a partial one if the Palestinian terrorist organization is still intact.

The Israeli leader told Kaufman that Israel is "winning big" against its opponents with the weakening of Hamas and Hezbollah and the dismantlement of Syria's Assad regime, the op-ed notes.

Netanyahu also claimed in the interview that only days after October 7, some Israeli military officials suggested going more after the Hezbollah terrorist organization so that Hamas would be left "intact in the south," to which the prime minister disagreed and said, "We shouldn’t conduct a two-front war. One massive front at a time. We’re here to uproot Hamas—not to deliver deterrent blows, but to destroy it.”  

Netanyahu then defended Israel's position to control the Philadelphi Corridor in Gaza's south, saying, "It’s not enough to destroy Hamas if you don’t control the southern closure."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a situational assessment on Mount Hermon. December 17, 2024. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

He then discussed the US withholding weapons should Israel enter Rafah, which Netanyahu described as a "legitimate case" and appreciated the pressure US President Joe Biden was under on the matter, Kaufman's op-ed stated, with the Israeli leader saying "It’s not easy to be president, let’s face it, with these very radical fringes in his party. It wasn’t easy to do what Mr. Biden did."

Netanyahu says Islamic Republic and its proxies are weakening

Looking towards Israel's northern border, Netanyahu told Kaufman that before his assassination, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah "was literally taking over the command of the military actions. But the thing that startled me was that I realized he was the axis of the axis, replacing [Qassem] Soleimani.”

He later said that Iran "has no supply line," saying the Islamic Republic spent billions of dollars on Syria, Hezbollah, and Hamas. “We warned Assad not to let Iran supply Hezbollah with weapons through Syria. He played dumb,” he added. “I don’t know if we killed anyone, but we certainly smashed the weaponry of the Syrian army,” he said regarding the Israeli bombing of Syria’s chemical weapons facilities. “We don’t want all the stuff the Syrians amassed falling into the hands of the jihadists.”

He then made it clear that he was optimistic about US President-elect Donald Trump returning to the Oval Office, saying that he "places the onus squarely on Hamas and tells them there will be consequences.”