Hamas will likely not comply with Gaza peace plan, says NetanyahuJNS/Israel, Aug 4, 2026
(Aug. 4, 2026 / JNS) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an interview aired on Monday expressed skepticism regarding Hamas’s willingness to lay down its weapons as required by the Board of Peace’s 15-point Roadmap for peace in Gaza, and called on the international community to accept Palestinian immigrants.
“I don’t think Hamas is going to turn into a kitten—this predator,” Netanyahu said during an appearance on Israeli historian and media personality Gadi Taub’s podcast.
When asked if Israel had missed the opportunity to eradicate Hamas in Gaza, the prime minister replied, “It’s not missed—it’s not completed. There’s still work to do ... Hamas must be disarmed and Gaza demilitarized, and only then [Gaza] can start reconstruction, including rehabilitating its fanaticism.”
Netanyahu added, “Certain people in the West, maybe the entire West, have a problem understanding what fanaticism is. [For example,] when you are willing to sacrifice any human norm, when you are willing to slaughter people—like we saw in Syria; they tore out someone’s heart and ate it while the victim was conscious for the last few seconds.”
Israel’s longest-serving prime minister went on to say that allowing Gazans to voluntarily relocate to other countries is a policy that must be advanced, adding that the only other place on earth from which citizens are not permitted to emigrate is North Korea.
“For God’s sake, open the door, let them leave! The countries [say], ‘No, no, we will not accept them so as not to help Israel.’ What about helping the Gazans? Why don’t they have the right granted to billions of people around the world, to move from place to place?” he continued.
The underlying motivation behind opposition to Palestinian relocation is “to destroy the State of Israel,” he added. “If you let people leave and if you really eliminate Hamas and those who remain [in Gaza] can live a normal life and not under these human monsters, then it’s obvious that the conflict would end.”
https://www.jns.org/news/israel-news/hamas-will-likely-not-comply-with-gaza-peace-plan-says-netanyahu