Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has suggested the war with Hamas may continue until 2025, according to reports.
Netanyahu made the comments while talking to council leaders from areas near the border with Gaza, Channel 12 in Israel reported, according to The Times of Israel.
These were the communities that were left traumatised after Hamas’ October 7 attack, in which over 1,200 civilians were brutally killed.
Evidence of mutilation, torture, rape, sexual assault, and the setting alight of people, corpses, and homes were all reported by authorities.
It was also reported the council leaders told Netanyahu that most residents of the towns and kibbutzim in the area still don’t want to return to their homes.
READ MORE: Netanyahu vows to defy Hague court as he insists ‘no-one can stop us’ in Gaza
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Tuesday: “We are preparing to increase the humanitarian assistance… as well as to help set the conditions for the population to return to north Gaza where the UN hopes to conduct assessment missions over the coming week.”
Hamas still holds 132 hostages in Gaza, but not all of them alive. The bodies of eight hostages have been recovered and three hostages were mistakenly killed by the military.
It has also been reported that the IDF is fearful that its gains made in the three months of military operations since October 7 could be lost after the war.
IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi voiced fears over potential mismanagement of security in Gaza once the fighting stops, according to reports.
Channel 13 news reported that Halevi warned Netanyahu and the government: “We are facing the erosion of gains made thus far in the war because no strategy has been put together for the day after.”
He also reportedly said that the IDF “may need to go back and operate in areas where we have already concluded the fighting.”
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