“The hostages must be returned, even at a very heavy price,” said Gantz in a Tuesday evening address.
He said that while controlling the Gaza-Egypt border is an important goal as Israel fights to keep Hamas from smuggling in weapons and reconstituting its military, Israel can return to the area when it deems it necessary once the hostages are home.
“The prime minister did not look the public in the eye and tell the truth,” said Gantz. “He won’t bring the hostages home, he won’t truly protect the south, he won’t return the residents of the north to their homes, he won’t prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.”
Speaking with reporters during a rare press conference in Jerusalem on Monday night, Netanyahu had insisted that control of the 14-kilometer (8.7 miles) strip of land along the Gaza-Egypt border is essential for Israel to achieve its war aims and that maintaining the IDF there is “central” and determines Israel’s very future. “We will not go out. The importance of the Philadelphi Corridor is cardinal — to bring out the hostages, to ensure that Hamas is destroyed, and that Gaza will not again be a threat to us,” he said. READ MORE
