Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his opposition to a Palestinian state at the opening of the Israeli cabinet meeting.
“Our opposition to a Palestinian state in any territory has not changed. Gaza will be demobilized and Hamas will disarm, the easy way or the hard way,” he said.
In his address, he condemned extremist violence – both attacks against elected officials, which “do not represent the Haredi public,” he said in reference to an attack against Shas MK Yoav Ben-Zur, and attacks against Palestinians and IDF soldiers in the West Bank committed by a “minority entering Judea and Samaria,” which according to Netanyahu, “does not represent the large settler public, who are law-abiding and loyal to the state.”
He said the violence “will be addressed with full force because we are a state of law, and a state of law operates according to the law.”
“We are in an election year. The elections will take place by the end of the year, we know that, and I assume by the end of the year. But during this period of the election year, we are witnessing a primary attack, both from within Likud and from outside it.” Responding to criticisms on X, Netanyahu said he “doesn’t recall” a time in which security matters were debated on the social media platform, and reiterated that these issues are the prime minister’s responsibility.
He said that according to Trump’s 20-Point plan, Gaza will be demilitarized and Hamas will be disarmed. “Either this will happen the easy way or it will happen the hard way. That is what I said, and that is what President Trump also said.”
He said that the opposition to a Palestinian state “has not changed at all,” adding, “I have been preventing these attempts for decades, both against external pressures and against internal pressures. So I do not need support, tweets, or lectures from anyone.”