According to the Times of Israel newspaper, Netanyahu made statements ahead of the weekly cabinet meeting. “We will respond to any act of aggression against us, from any front, and we will make them pay a heavy price,” said Prime Minister Netanyahu, who also rejected allegations that he put forward new demands to undermine the prisoner swap and ceasefire negotiations held through mediators with Hamas.
Netanyahu, who has been accused by Israel and the international community of not making a prisoner swap deal with Hamas for political reasons, said: “We did not add a single demand to the draft. It was Hamas that demanded dozens of amendments.”
NETANYAHU’S PRECONDITIONS ON PALESTINE!
Netanyahu had previously announced new preconditions, such as Israel controlling the Philadelphia Corridor area on the Egypt-Gaza border and inspecting Palestinians displaced in Gaza as they return north. According to press reports, among the new conditions Israel has brought to the agreement is that Israeli soldiers will continue to stay in the Gaza Strip during the prisoner swap agreement.
WHAT HAPPENED?
Fuad Shukur, one of Hezbollah’s top commanders, was killed in an attack by the Israeli army in Beirut on July 30. Hamas Political Bureau Chairman Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran, the capital of Iran, on July 31.
While Iran and Hamas state that Israel was behind the attack, the Tel Aviv administration continues to remain silent about this assassination.
The Tel Aviv administration stated that it “expected a strong response” from Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iran after the airstrike in Beirut that killed Hezbollah’s top commander Fuad Shukur and the assassination of Hamas’s political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
(AA)