Israeli leaders on Wednesday repeated their assertion that the war will continue until Hamas is defeated and the hostages are returned.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a visit to an Air Force base that Israel's war would continue until its objectives are reached. "Let no one mistake us. We will continue to fight on land, air and sea until we are victorious," he said.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant who met with naval commandos was also unequivocal, telling the elite fighting force that the war would go on. "Without the destruction of Hamas, there can be no security for Israelis," he said. "We must achieve our objectives, not nearly, not partially but completely," he said.
Netanyahu's National Security Advisor, former Likud minister Tsachi Hanegbi told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee earlier in the day, that Hamas leader Yahyah Sinwar realized his days were numbered and had therefore, increased his demands for any hostage release deal. This after IDF and political leaders had claimed that the ongoing military campaign in Gaza, would push Sinwar to agree to release the hostages.
"[Sinwar] may not have knowingly chosen suicide but even Bin Laden and the leaders of ISIS thought they would be able to slaughter thousands and not pay the price. Sinwar will not emerge from the tunnels ever," Hanegbi said. "Even if it takes a month or a year or five years – at the end, we will get to him."
Hanegbi said there was no point in discussing the day after the war while it is still being fought but said that the UNRWA, the UN organization established to aid Palestinian Refugees, is hostile to Israel and therefore must not play a major role in the Strip after the war and must be replaced. He also refused to share any plans already set in motion for the administration of Gaza when the war ends or what role the Palestinian Authority might play, nor would he discuss with the lawmakers the status of normalization efforts with Saudi Arabia.