TEL AVIV, October 19. /TASS/. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that one of the goals of the October 7 attack by the radical Palestinian movement Hamas from the Gaza Strip was to disrupt the process of normalizing his country's relations with Arab states.

"We were on the cusp of expanding that peace and destroying that move was one of the reasons why this action (attack on Israel - TASS) was taken," he said, addressing UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who arrived on a visit to the country.

Netanyahu added that the operation against radicals in the Gaza Strip "will be a long" one and Israel will need "continuous support" from London. "It’s the battle of Israel, it’s the battle of the moderate Arab countries, it’s the battle of Western civilization, the battle of the free world, the battle for the future," he added. Netanyahu and Sunak's joint press statement was released by the Israeli government press office.

In September 2020, the Israeli side signed documents in Washington, brokered by the US, to normalize relations with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. The trilateral agreement was called the Abraham Accords. Subsequently, Morocco and Sudan announced the normalization of relations with Israel. Prior to the peace with Bahrain and the UAE, Israel's only diplomatic relations among Arab countries were with Egypt and Jordan.