Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave an address to discuss the newly signed Gaza peace deal between Israel and Hamas and the return of the hostages on Friday afternoon, shortly after the IDF announced that the ceasefire had gone into effect.
"I remind you that at the beginning of the war, there were those who said that we wouldn't be able to bring even a single hostage back alive," Netanyahu began his speech. "I thought differently. I believed that if we applied heavy military pressure on Hamas, combined with intense diplomatic pressure, we could indeed bring back all our hostages."
"And that is exactly what we did."
He noted that one of the main objectives of the war, alongside achieving the release of the hostages, was removing the Iranian threat, including the regime's proxies: Hamas and Hezbollah.
"By the time [US President Donald] Trump entered the White House, we had brought back 158 hostages, including 117 alive, Netanyahu went on. "After President Trump entered the White House, we brought home another 49 hostages, both living and deceased."
Still, he acknowledged, 48 hostages remain in Gaza. Twenty alive, and 28 deceased.
"Let me be absolutely clear: anyone claiming this hostage deal was always on the table is simply not telling the truth," Netanyahu reiterated. "Hamas never agreed to release all of our hostages while we remained deep inside Gaza."
The mounting pressure from the IDF operating deep within Gaza, he explained, combined with the diplomatic pressure granted from bringing Trump into the picture, isolated Hamas and made it feel as if it had a "sword at its throat," forcing the organization into agreeing to the deal.
Operation 'They Shall Return to Their Borders'
"I promised the families of the hostages: I won’t give up on a single one," Netanyahu said, as Israel prepares to receive the remaining live hostages in an operation revealed to be named "Operation They Shall Return to Their Borders," quoting the Book of Jeremiah.
On the matter of the deceased hostages, the prime minister affirmed that "we will work to locate every one of [the deceased hostages] as soon as possible" in order to return them and grant them a proper burial.
Netanyahu concluded his address by thanking Trump and his team, US Envoy Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner, for their efforts in closing the Gaza peace deal, as well as the Israeli delegation led by Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer.