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Netanyahu outlines Gaza achievements, touts new diplomatic horizon
Following Tuesday’s open-ended ceasefire agreement with Hamas, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday addressed the media, explaining the achievements of Operation Protective Edge.
Speaking alongside Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon and IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz, Netanyahu commented, “What we have is a great military achievement and a great diplomatic achievement.” During the 50 days of fighting, Netanyahu said Hamas had been “hit hard,” and listed the military achievements including eradication of terror tunnels, destruction of command centres, rocket launchers and around 1,000 Hamas terrorists killed including senior leaders. Ya’alon concurred that Hamas “were dealt a serious blow.”
Netanyahu also emphasised that Hamas had “received none of the conditions it had demanded in return for a ceasefire.” Indeed, under Tuesday’s ceasefire deal most of Hamas’s core demands have been deferred to further talks scheduled to take place within a month. These include construction of a sea and airport, opening of borders with Egypt and Israel, the release of prisoners, and payments of salaries to Hamas employees in the Gaza Strip.
Although he conceded that it is “too early to tell” whether there will be “long term calm,” Netanyahu also focused on the diplomatic achievements of the past several weeks. He said it is “no small thing” that the international community had not intervened with Israel’s military operation and that Hamas’s isolation, especially in the Arab world signalled “a change; we didn’t see this in the past.” Since the launch of Operation Protective Edge, said Netanyahu, there had been a “reorganisation” of forces in the Middle East, which offered a “possible diplomatic horizon for Israel that holds within it new possibilities for our state.”
Similarly to comments he made last week, Netanyahu emphasised that Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas has a potentially significant role to play in the regional configuration, saying “We hope he will continue to seek peace with Israel,” adding “We would be happy if Abbas’s forces would enter Gaza.”