Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Saturday night that he would not end the war with Hamas in Gaza until the terror group is removed from power, calling its current demands for a hostage release deal “capitulation conditions.”

Speaking in a prerecorded video address that his office described the day before as a “special statement on a diplomatic matter,” Netanyahu argued that Hamas would rehabilitate its military capabilities if the conflict were ended.

He asserted that it was not possible to “trick” the terror group into ending the war in return for the hostages and then resume military operations, due to “binding” international commitments Hamas was demanding as part of an end to hostilities. Those who were suggesting this “illusion of deception” had no idea how international politics works, he said.

The prime minister also accused Hamas of stymying a recently proposed deal for the return of Israeli hostages due to its demands for a permanent end to the current war and a full Israeli retreat from Gaza, and argued that ending the war would reverse Israel’s achievements during the conflict.

The prime minister further vowed in his 12-minute speech that he remained committed to preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, and slammed recent criticism of his failure to attack Iranian nuclear facilities as hypocrisy.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum accused Netanyahu of having “no plan” to bring back the hostages in response to the prime minister’s comments, and said the only solution was to end the war.

Netanyahu released his prerecorded video address — he hasn’t held a press conference with questions from the media in over four months — shortly after the end of the Passover holiday, and two days after Hamas publicly rejected an Israeli proposal for a temporary ceasefire in the Gaza Strip in return for the release of half the remaining living hostages and the remains of dead hostages. Major Hebrew TV Channels 11, 12 and 13, to whom Netanyahu has stopped giving interviews, did not show his video statement in full.

“We will not end the ‘war of revival’ before we destroy Hamas in Gaza, return all our hostages and ensure that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel,” averred Netanyahu, using

© The Times of Israel