Israel And Hamas Agreed To Extend The Pause By Another Day But Israel Said It Will “Fight Until The End”
Speaking a day before the ceasefire, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “there is no situation in which we do not go back to fighting until the end.”
The Israeli government and Hamas have agreed to extend the temporary pause in fighting by another day to seven days.
The announcement on Thursday Nov. 30. came just minutes before the previous two-day extension was set to expire.
The humanitarian pause will be extended by at least 24 hours under the same terms as previously, under which Hamas would release 10 Israeli hostages in exchange for Israel releasing 30 Palestinians it is currently holding in its prisons.
However, speaking a day before the ceasefire, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel was intent on “fighting until the end”.
“At the start of the war, I set three goals: Eliminating Hamas, returning all of our hostages and ensuring that Gaza will never again go back to being a threat to Israel. These three goals still stand,” Netanyahu said.
He said that questions had arisen in recent days as to whether Israel will go back to fighting after this stage of the hostages being returned, adding that his answer is “an unequivocal yes.”
“There is no situation in which we do not go back to fighting until the end,” he said. “This is my policy. The entire cabinet is behind it. The entire government is behind it. The soldiers are behind it. The people are behind it – this is exactly what we will do.”
Since Israel declared war on Hamas on Oct. 7 after the latter’s surprise attack that killed about 1,200 Israelis, it has subjected Gaza to relentless airstrikes and a ground offensive that has killed more than 14,800 Palestinians, including more than 6,000 children.
