Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this evening:
“Citizens of Israel, my brothers and sisters, absolute victory rests on three things: The return of all our hostages, the dismantling of Hamas’s weapons, and the demilitarization of Gaza. Only in this way will we ensure that Gaza no longer poses a threat to the State of Israel.
Yesterday, we fully completed the sacred mission of returning all of our hostages. Now I have heard, not one or two people, saying with endless emotion: ‘It’s unbelievable that we brought Ran Gvili home.’ It is indeed believable. I believed. I believed we would return them all. I believed it even when, at the start of the war, a very senior official in the security establishment said: ‘We must get used to the fact that we might not see even one hostage return to Israel.’ I believed it even when they told me: ‘Prime Minister, you must stop the war. You must leave Gaza. Yes, you must comply with Hamas’s demands, because otherwise, we simply won’t see the hostages here.’ But I believed otherwise.
I believed that through the combination of military and diplomatic pressure, we could, and would, bring all of our hostages back home. Because what is important in war, more than anything else, is to ignore the background noise, to stand with composure against pressures from home and abroad, to understand what needs to be done, and to strive with all our might to do it, to achieve the goal.
Over the past two years, my wife and I met dozens of times with the families of the hostages. These were heartbreaking meetings. A family comes to you and shows you a picture of a son, or a husband, or a daughter, or a brother. They say to me: ‘Prime Minister, promise me, swear to me, that you will bring him or her back.’ I look them in the eye and I say: ‘I promise.’ ‘Swear it!’ ‘I swear. I swear that I will bring him or her back to you.’ And that is what we did.
Thanks to the wise decisions we made, thanks to our heroic soldiers and commanders, in the regular forces, the career service, and the reserves, thanks to the sacrifice of the fallen, thanks to the mental fortitude of those wounded in body and soul, thanks to all of these, we did it. We completed the task.
Yesterday we brought home the hero National Counter-Terrorism Unit policeman Ran Gvili. Ran was the first to charge, and Rani was the last to return. Although he was wounded in his shoulder, he jumped into the firestorm in the Western Negev. He was wounded during the fighting, but he continued to fight. He saved many lives. He killed 14 terrorists, fought until the last bullet, fought until the terrorists’ fire overcame him, but it did not overcome his spirit. Many generations will draw inspiration from Ran Gvili, a hero of Israel, and from all our other heroes, whose courage was revealed in all its glory in the War of Redemption. This is the generation of heroism. This is the generation of victory.
I thank my colleagues in the government for their backing and support, among them former Minister Ron Dermer, for his important contribution to the return of the hostages, his important contribution in the face of lies and slanders about abandoning hostages. I thank Coordinator for the Hostages and the Missing Gal Hirsch, who also did a wonderful job in the face of slanders and insults. Simply with composure, gritting his teeth, he continued to work. I thank our fighters in the IDF, the ISA and the Israel Police. To President Trump and his team, and to you, the citizens of Israel, for standing firm throughout the campaign.
Now we are focusing on completing the two remaining missions: The disarming of Hamas and the demilitarization of Gaza from weapons and tunnels. As I agreed with President Trump – you have heard this many times, both from him and from me – there are only two options: It will be done either the easy way or the hard way. But in any case, it will happen!
I hear even now the statements that we will allow the reconstruction of Gaza before demilitarization. That will not happen. I hear that we will bring Turkish soldiers and Qatari soldiers into Gaza. That will also not happen. I hear that I will allow the establishment of a Palestinian state in Gaza. That has not happened, and it will not happen.
I think everyone knows that the one who stopped the establishment of a Palestinian state, is me, together with my colleagues in the governments I have headed. Today and tomorrow, we will not allow it. Israel will maintain security control over the entire area, from the Jordan to the sea, and that is also true regarding the Gaza Strip.
I wish to say to you, citizens of Israel, in the War of Redemption, we have achieved great achievements together. We severely struck Iran, we severely struck Iran’s terrorist proxies. Now, it is true, the Iranian axis is trying to recover, but we will not allow it to do so. If Iran makes the grave mistake and attacks Israel, we will respond with a force that Iran has yet to see.
And I wish to tell you one more thing: Yesterday I participated in the Second International Conference on Combatting Antisemitism, a very important conference initiated by Minister Amichai Chikli. It is a particularly important conference against the backdrop of the wave of violent antisemitism sweeping many countries.
I said there: We have the opportunity to see the enormous turnaround we have brought about in the life of our people. Because after we lost our independence, and lost our land, we were scattered everywhere. We were helpless, we were defenseless, unable to defend ourselves or even complain. Not only to hold a weapon but to complain about these attacks. Because there was in us, in these countries in our exile, a deadly combination of two things: The Jews were prominent and at the same time they were weak. When you are prominent and weak, you invite a difficult human trait: Jealousy. There is jealousy between humans, and there is also jealousy between nations. Because of this jealousy, we suffered insults, slanders that accompanied us through the generations. What did they not accuse us of? That we poison wells, that we slaughter small children to take their blood to bake matzah for Passover, that we are carriers of diseases. Country after country, the same slanders. These slanders were always accompanied by violent attacks, severe harm, murders, deportations, and finally mass murders, the peak of which, of course, was the Holocaust.
Now, here is the difference: Today we still see the slanders. The same thing, what they said about the Jews, they say today about the State of the Jews. ‘We are child killers, genocide, starvation.’ But today we have a state, we have an army, we have wonderful young men and women. When they attack us, we fight back. Do they slander us? Yes. But when they come to slaughter us, we fight back fiercely, and we win. Today we are prominent but today we are also strong, and we will continue to win.
Yesterday, my brothers and sisters, we closed a circle together. From here we continue forward with strength, determination and faith, continuing forward to ensure, with G-d’s help, the future and security of the State of Israel for generations to come.
Gal, you are here accompanying us. I wish to thank you on behalf of the people of Israel. Thank you for all you have done and for all you are doing. You don’t know, Gal also brought people, he helped not only to bring the hostages from Gaza, he brought Israelis from Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and –¬ recently – also from Venezuela.”
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