What’s happened: Last night, Prime Minister Netanyahu also held his first press conference in five months where he addressed a range of issues including the current direction of military operations in the Gaza Strip, as well as the threat posed by Iran.
- While indicating an openness to agree to a “temporary ceasefire to return additional hostages”, Netanyahu also reiterated that the war’s first priority was to “defeat Hamas”, and ensure that “Gaza never again constitutes a threat to Israel”, as well as securing the return of all hostages.
- Netanyahu indicated his commitment to “fully achieving” these objectives and advised that “the work is not yet finished.” While taking personal credit for the collapse of Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Assad regime in Syria, he dodged taking responsibility for the failures leading up to the 7th October attacks.
- Netanyahu also emphasised that Hamas “has looted a considerable part of the aid, and it sells the rest at inflated prices in order to finance its terrorist army.” This is the source of the money for financing the recruitment of the terrorists. He added that in order to prevent this, Israel and the US “have developed a different framework for the allocation of basic food to the civilians and the children, which will not reach Hamas.”
- This is divided into three stages:
- The bringing in of basic food to Gaza – in order to prevent a humanitarian crisis, and in order to allow the fighting to continue.
- The opening of food distribution points by American companies, and which will be secured by the IDF.
- The creation of a sterile zone in the southern Strip to which the civilian population will be evacuated from the combat areas, for the purpose of defending it. In this zone, which will be Hamas-free, the residents of Gaza will receive full humanitarian assistance.
- Netanyahu also mentioned Israel’s strikes on the Houthis in Yemen, saying “we still have not had the last word.” (full speech)
- Later that evening, a missile launched from Yemen was intercepted, and caused sirens to sound across central Israel but did not cause any injuries or damage. Another siren was sounded in Israel at Thursday noon. This was the tenth and eleventh Houthi missile launched at Israel since the start of May.
- Leader of the Opposition Lapid attacked Netanyahu saying the implication of his remarks “is Gaza’s occupation for many years. Our children in the coming years will roam about in the streets of Khan Yunis and Rafah, and every morning we will wake up to the words ‘it can now be reported.’” Lapid added: “Netanyahu lied this evening when he said he was fully coordinated with the American administration. There is no such coordination. He lost Trump’s support and he lost his ear.”
- The speech comes as the Israeli High Court ruled that Netanyahu’s dismissal of Ronen Bar as Shin Bet’s Director was unlawful, predominantly due to his own conflict of interests in doing so given the ongoing Qatargate investigation. However, given how Bar ultimately decided to resign, the court also deemed that the various petitions had now been rendered moot and there was no need to issue further rulings on the matter.
- During his speech, Netanyahu said that he “didn’t know anything” about his aides allegedly getting money from Qatar to boost the Gulf nation’s image, and that he “still doesn’t know” what happened.
Looking ahead: Another round of Omani-brokered US-Iranian nuclear negotiations are due to take place in Rome over the tomorrow. However, significant gaps must still be bridged, most notably Iran’s ability to enrich uranium.
- The US is seeking both a reduction in scale of Iran’s nuclear programme, as well as stopping it from enriching uranium altogether. However, Ayatollah Khamenei has claimed that Iran does not need American permission to continue the enrichment.
- The US has confirmed that uranium enrichment is a red line, and if it so desires Iran can import already enriched uranium to operate nuclear reactors for domestic energy usage.
- This week, it was also reported that Israel is preparing to conduct air strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities in the event that negotiations with the US fail. A US source told Axios that Washington is concerned that Israeli strikes may be unilateral, and conducted without prior approval from President Trump.