Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Wednesday with mayors from the south, and Israel Hayom received a recording of the meeting.
Exclusive: Netanyahu's recordings from meeting with mayors in the south
"We need 3 things from the United States: munitions.munitions.armaments, there are huge demonstrations in Western capitals and pressure inside the United States, and I am exerting political pressure and being interviewed on the networks there.Elon Musk, that's why we brought him. We need to conduct counter-pressure because our friend (Biden) is being pressured against me. The political space is for the IDF and Shin Bet to enter there and destroy Hamas. It does not come easily, there are arguments with the best of our friends.
Netanyahu added: "If someone told you that we would bring 70 and 80 people back here and maybe more, hand on heart, would anyone say not to bring back these boys and children? But if someone tells you that the price is to stop the fighting, that this Sinwar will come out of the ruins and make a V-sign, there is no one who will agree to it, I will not agree to it and we will not do it. We will complete the job. I can tell you what the agreement was because they talk without knowing facts.
"At first Sinwar wanted to give 2 and 7 Thais and then he said I have fifty and you will get it in five days. He said on the third and fourth day I would get information and then I could bring more, I told the Qataris to Biden, he said he has fifty to give them. For every extra day he wants there is a rate. We wanted to give him an incentive to give more and it worked. 71 returned. God willing, this is not the end; we will exhaust this process and continue the war. And that's another fighting. I went into Gaza and saw the fighters. It's a simple line of sight to Sderot. There is nothing that bothers. But the fighting is still ahead of us. That's the most important thing. Second, we saw that the ground maneuver and the political pressure gave us the result. But we do not give up on the goal of eliminating them.
"And how do we make sure Gaza doesn't go back to being (what it was; S.A.C.) And here there is quite a struggle. There's something that can't happen that we've done all this. And the children learn to kill Israelis, and the right of return is in PA schools. So if we haven't learned anything, we'll agree to it. It won't come back. We won't let it come back. I am never talking about a sense of security, but about security, and therefore we have a sacred obligation to restore security. I speak at length today because nothing means anything if we do not restore security.
During the meeting, one of the attendees told him: "We believed you and the army, and today's crisis is unbearable in how to restore security and a sense of security. As a resident of Netiv HaTerich, how do I go home when there are training bases behind our houses and drones landing in the middle of our community."
Netanyahu replied: "We will destroy Hamas and there will be no possibility of any other such entity controlling Gaza. We will control security in the Gaza Strip. I said this to Biden three days ago and I told him: "Joe, I really appreciate your help in bringing back the hostages, but I want you to understand that it's over – we're coming back. We will fight. To the end. And just in case, I say this to the media in the United States, too. Leaders are influenced through public opinion. I meet the fighters in Gaza with a twinkle in their eyes, coming from all parts of the country with fire. I want to tell you, War Cabinet, government, the public, united. You can't unite the world on this issue, but we need to keep the United States behind this."
On the claims of the mayors that help is coming too slowly and too little, Netanyahu said: "We will not spare investment here. It's a battle with bureaucrats who do a good job but take out the soul. It's a battle I've been waging for 20 years. Yossi and Hadas have tasks and more needs to be done."
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