He added: “I think we need to emphasize that it is impossible to return the hostages alive in the near future without reaching an agreement.”
The Israeli government has put forward two goals in the war, which began with a Hamas attack on October 7 that killed 1,200 people and took about 250 hostage: destroying the extremist group in Gaza and repatriating the hostages. But some Israelis, especially hostage families, expressed growing doubts that the two goals were compatible.
Hamas released more than 100 hostages as part of a negotiated week-long humanitarian truce in late November, during which Israel released imprisoned Palestinians. Since the resumption of fighting, Hamas has said there will be no further deals as long as the war in Gaza continues – which Netanyahu has said is necessary to bring the hostages home.
Eisenkot's pre-recorded interview came on the heels of a televised speech by Netanyahu in which he reiterated that complete victory over Hamas is the only way forward. The Prime Minister also stressed his opposition to the US plan to establish a Palestinian state in any post-war scenario, saying it would endanger Israeli security.
“In any future agreement, Israel must have security control over the entire territory from the sea to the Jordan River,” Netanyahu said on Thursday. “This is a necessary condition, and it contradicts the ideas of sovereignty” of the Palestinians.
President Biden has continued to advocate a two-state solution to the conflict – an idea that many Israelis and Palestinians living under Israeli occupation in recent years have deemed unworkable. When asked Thursday about Netanyahu’s position, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby responded, “Obviously we see it differently.” He added: “We believe that the Palestinians have every right to live in an independent state that enjoys peace and security.”
A clear majority of Israelis support the war in Gaza, but the ferocity of Israel's three-month ground and air offensive — in which more than 24,760 Palestinians have been killed and more than 62,100 wounded, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health — has led to escalating international criticism and sparked skirmishes in Throughout the region, including in Lebanon, Iran, Syria, Yemen and Iraq.
Eisenkot said on the program that the war cabinet, which includes members of the opposition like himself, also prevented Netanyahu and army commanders from launching an attack in October on the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon, an attack that he said would have achieved Hamas' goal of expanding the conflict.
“We prevented a very wrong decision from being made,” he said, describing the shouting match in the Cabinet. Eisenkot, who was army chief of staff from 2015 to 2019, said he bears responsibility for the cross-border attack carried out by Hamas, the bloodiest day in Israel's history.
Gershon Baskin, an Israeli peace activist who served as a back-channel Israeli negotiator with Hamas in the 2011 deal to release an Israeli soldier, told The Washington Post that Eisenkot's comments were the most critical of the war effort “from within the center of Israel.” The establishment of Israel.
“He set a new moral standard in Israeli politics,” Baskin said. “It is now up to Eisenkot to decide how long he wants to stay in the coalition.” The majority of Netanyahu's circle “supports putting the war effort first and relying on the myth that military pressure will bring the hostages home.”
The organizer of Thursday's anti-war demonstration in Tel Aviv cited Eisenkot as an example of public figures' changing attitudes toward the conflict.
“The number of people in Israeli society who say we need to stop fighting to return the hostages is steadily increasing,” said Alon Lee Green, president of Standing Together, a group working for Jewish-Arab coexistence.
About 2,000 people, including Palestinians, took part in the demonstration, calling for a ceasefire and carrying signs reading “Only peace will bring security” and “In Gaza and Sderot, children just want to live.”
Green told me it was the largest demonstration of its kind since the conflict began and took place despite police efforts to prevent it.
Before October 7, Israelis were deeply divided over Netanyahu, especially his push to reform the country's judicial system, which critics said would pave the way for authoritarian rule.
The country quickly came together after the Hamas attack, which Israelis viewed as an existential attack, and the media covers little of the civilian casualties in Gaza or any criticism of the war. But concern among Israelis about the fate of the hostages has continued to dominate public discourse, along with mounting pressure on Netanyahu to arrest or kill senior Hamas leaders and develop a post-war strategy.
Prominent Israeli writer Nahum Barnea wrote in Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper: “We understand today that Hamas will not disappear, and certainly not in the next year, and that rocket firing will continue to one degree or another.” “Let's at least release the hostages.”
Meanwhile, the public health situation in Gaza continues to deteriorate, according to the latest UN update, which reported that the disease is spreading in crowded shelters and that Gazans, including 60,000 pregnant women, have limited access to medical care.
ted sheban, Vice President of UNICEF, Once aid enters the Strip, “our ability to distribute it becomes a matter of life and death,” he said in a statement on Thursday after a three-day visit to Gaza.
During his trip, he said, he witnessed “some of the most horrific conditions I have ever seen.” Since my last visit, the situation has gone from catastrophic to near collapse.”
On Thursday, the Gaza Ministry of Health announced more than 8,000 cases of viral hepatitis linked to overcrowding in shelters.
In the latest sign of the expanding conflict, the United States on Thursday launched another round of strikes on Houthi militants in Yemen who are attacking naval vessels linked to Israel and the United States in protest against the Gaza war.
Kirby said that the US aircraft targeted anti-ship missiles that were about to be launched. However, the Houthis fired on a US-owned ship later in the day in their third attack on commercial ships in three days.
The movement's spokesman, Mohamed Abdel Salam, told Reuters on Friday that the attacks would still focus on the siege of Israel and responding to US strikes, but would not target former rivals Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Stern reported from Tel Aviv. Paul Shim in London contributed to this report.
