Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would “land additional and painful blows” on Hamas over Passover to increase pressure on the terror group to free the hostages it has held in the Gaza Strip for over six months.
In a pre-Passover video message shared online, Netanyahu framed the Israel-Hamas war in biblical terms, citing the rabbinic dictum that “in every generation, they rise up to destroy us” and stating that the absence of the hostages over the upcoming holiday “only strengthens our determination to bring them back.”
Israel launched its war on Hamas in Gaza after the terror group’s October 7 massacre in southern Israel, in which close to 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were slain, and 253 were kidnapped to Gaza, where more than half are believed to remain.
A truce deal in November saw the release of 105 hostages, and a handful of others were freed by the military or let go separately. However, recent talks between the two sides have stalled, with Israel blaming Hamas’s demands that Israel end the war and withdraw its troops from Gaza, we well as the identity and number of Palestinian prisoners that the terror group is demanding be released in exchange for the hostages.
