In parallel, I instructed to begin immediate negotiations for the release of all our hostages and the end of the war, on conditions that are acceptable for Israel.

We can see clearly that Hamas is under immense pressure.

Those who call to end the war delay the hostages’ release and guarantee that the horrors of October 7 will return.

Those who are calling today for an end to the war without Hamas' elimination are not only hardening Hamas' position and delaying the release of our hostages, they are also ensuring that the horrors of October 7 will repeat themselves and…

The timeline that we set for the action is fairly quickly.

No one in Gaza would have survived after two years of war if Israel was implementing a starvation policy.

Israel’s goal was not to stay in Gaza — just free it of Hamas.

We want, first of all, to enable safe zones to be established so the civilian population of Gaza City can move out.

In fact, we have decided, and I’ve ordered and directed the military to bring in foreign journalists, more foreign journalists, a lot.

We are not going to occupy Gaza — we are going to free Gaza from Hamas.

We intend to take over Gaza in order to assure our security, remove Hamas there.

We intend to, in order to assure our security, remove Hamas there, enable the population to be free of Gaza, and to pass it to civilian governance that is not Hamas and not anyone advocating the destruction of Israel.