Benjamin Netanyahu has said that all the Israeli hostages in Gaza will be released in the “coming days”.
Hailing Donald Trump’s plan to end the war in a televised address to the nation, the Israeli prime minister vowed that all the living hostages, thought to number at least 20, would be brought home during the Jewish festival of the Tabernacles, or Sukkot, which runs from Oct 6 to Oct 13.
Mr Netanyahu said: “At the beginning of the war, one of our officials said, ‘We doubt if we’ll be able to bring even one hostage back alive.’
“But I never gave up on the others nor achieving the other objectives of the war.”
The Israeli leader, 75, said it was his resistance to international calls to stop the fighting that had helped to “eradicate Hamas” and apply the necessary military pressure on the terror group to hand over the hostages.