The prime minister booed when he promised to bring the captives home, but added that he needed “more time.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was heckled and booed by families of prisoners held by Hamas in Gaza during a speech to Parliament.
“Now! Now!” families chanted from the podium Monday as Netanyahu promised to bring the captives home, but added that Israeli commanders on the ground had told him “more time” was needed.
“We would not have succeeded so far in freeing more than 100 hostages without military pressure,” Netanyahu said. “And we will not be able to free all the hostages without military pressure.”
An agreement negotiated at the end of November by the United States, Qatar and Egypt allowed the release of more than 100 of the 240 prisoners taken to Gaza during the Hamas attacks on October 7 in southern Israel.
Israel says 129 captives remain held in Gaza. Three of them were mistakenly killed by Israeli forces this month.
“We will not stop until victory,” Netanyahu said to the cries of protesters in Parliament.
Family members of the captives sat in the room, looking at the prime minister, holding posters of their loved ones behind the gallery’s plexiglass and intermittently interrupting him.
Netanyahu’s speech came after his Likud party announced it had visited the Gaza Strip on Monday and vowed to step up the Israeli assault there.
Shortly after his return, Netanyahu declared that the war was far from over. He said it was false media speculation that his government might end the fighting.
“We don’t stop. We continue to fight and we will intensify the fighting in the coming days. It will be a long war that is not going to end any time soon,” the Israeli leader said.
Israel’s Finance Ministry said the war, expected to last until February, would likely result in an additional cost of at least $14 billion in the 2024 budget.
Meanwhile, about three months of Israeli bombardment have killed more than 20,674 Palestinians and injured 54,536 – mostly women and children.