On July 13th, local time, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu posted a video on his social media account stating that his recent visit to the United States was “very successful.”
In the video, Netanyahu refuted allegations that he hindered the agreement for a ceasefire in Gaza. He stated, “There’s always media repeating the propaganda of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), claiming I refused the agreement. But they have been wrong all along. We accepted the agreement proposed by the US Special Envoy for Middle East Affairs, and we also accepted the revised version proposed by the parties involved, which was rejected by Hamas.”
Netanyahu further expressed that Hamas seeks to continue its presence in Gaza so as to re-arm and launch attacks against Israel again. He stated that this would not be acceptable and would do everything possible to bring back the detained Israeli citizens and eliminate Hamas.
Moreover, Netanyahu denied that most Israelis polled domestically favor a ceasefire agreement, saying that the results were manipulated to “mislead the public.” He reiterated that Israel must persist in its goal of rescuing detainees while completely destroying Hamas and ensuring that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel. “That is precisely what I am doing—I will not give up on any goal.” (CCTV Wei Ran)