Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to open the “gates of hell” on Hamas if all remaining hostages aren’t released, as he touted support from the Trump administration for his policy in Gaza.
Speaking to reporters following a meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the prime minister said his country was working in full cooperation and coordination with the US.
“We have a common strategy and we can’t always share details of this strategy with the public, including when the gates of hell will be opened — as they surely will if all our hostages are not released, until the last one of them,” Netanyahu said.
Trump said last week that Israel should call off its ceasefire with Hamas “if all the hostages aren’t returned” by Saturday, hours after the group announced it was indefinitely postponing the next release of hostages. Hamas subsequently relented and Israel has continued to observe the ceasefire, even though only three men were released, in line with the original agreement.
Following the release of the hostages Saturday, the US president said he will back any decision Israel makes following the lapse of the deadline for the release of all hostages.
Netanyahu spoke to US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff on Sunday, according to a statement from his office. The Israeli prime minister announced he’d send a delegation of negotiators to Cairo on Monday to continue talks and that the security cabinet will convene Monday to discuss the next steps.
In an interview on Fox News on Sunday, Witkoff expressed optimism the parties would proceed to the second stage of the ceasefire and hostage exchange deal, which would include the release of Israeli soldiers held by Hamas and an end to the war.
“It just is a little bit more intricate and complicated in terms of how we bring the two sides together on this because phase two contemplates an end of the war, but it also contemplates Hamas not being involved in the government and being gone from Gaza,” Witkoff said. “So we’ve got to square those two things.”
Earlier, Netanyahu reiterated his support for Trump’s “bold vision” for Gaza’s future, and said he had discussed with Rubio how Israel and the US can work together to ensure that “that future becomes a reality.”
Trump has suggested moving the Gazan population to Egypt and Jordan so that the US can undertake a massive redevelopment of the war-torn area, a plan which the two countries and other Arab nations reject. Rubio, who is making his first official trip to the Middle East as secretary of state, is set to travel to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates next, where he is likely to encounter less enthusiasm for Trump’s plan.
Hamas “must be eliminated” and that as long as it stands as a force that can govern, administer, or threaten with violence, “peace becomes impossible,” Rubio said.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told Channel 12 TV on Saturday that preparations in conjunction with the US are at their outset for the removal of Gazans from the territory.
“There are two aspects that need to be carried out: One is to find some intake-capable countries, and the second is a huge logistical operation to move people out on such a scale,” Smotrich said. “It will begin in the coming weeks, even if at a slow pace, which will eventually grow robust. I say here unequivocally: Gazans have no good reason to stay in Gaza over the next 10 to 15 years.”
Benjamin Netanyahu on Iran
Netanyahu also said Israel and the US stand “shoulder to shoulder” in countering the threat of Iran, adding that Rubio had agreed that Iran’s aggression in the region must be rolled back.
Israel has dealt a “might blow to Iran’s terror axis” and that with US support, “we can and will finish the job,” the prime minister said.
Rubio called Iran “the single greatest source of instability in the region” and said that the issue must be addressed. There “can never be a nuclear Iran, a nuclear Iran that could then hold itself immune from pressure and from action,” he said.
Israel’s Defense Ministry said earlier on Sunday that a shipment of MK-84 heavy aerial bombs recently released by the US government was received and unloaded overnight. Kan News reported that the shipment — 1,800 bombs weighing a ton each — had been held up by the Biden administration and released by Trump.
“The munitions shipment that arrived in Israel tonight, released by the Trump Administration, represents a significant asset for the Air Force and the IDF and serves as further evidence of the strong alliance between Israel and the United States,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said.