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Israel will resume fighting in Gaza if need be, Netanyahu pledges

He said he had insisted on this during the US-and Qatar-brokered talks on a ceasefire in Gaza

TEL AVIV, January 19. /TASS/. Israel will be ready to resume combat operations in the Gaza Strip by new means and will all its might, if need be, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised address.

He said he had insisted on this during the US-and Qatar-brokered talks on a ceasefire in Gaza. Israel has the "right to return to fighting if needed" with US support, he stressed.

He also said that Israel intends to preserve control over the so-called Philadelphi Corridor, a narrow strip of land along Gaza’s border with Egypt, at this stage. Israel, in his words, will not decrease the number of its troops in the Philadelphi Corridor but will increase them during the first stage. "Our forces will be deployed inside the strip and will secure it from all sides. This will prevent weaponry being smuggled in and hostages being smuggled out," he said.

Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said late on January 15 that thanks to the mediatory efforts of Egypt, Qatar, and the United States, Israel and Hamas had reached an agreement on a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of hostages held in the enclave.

The agreement will come into force early on Sunday, January 19. During the 42-day first phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal, Hamas will release 33 hostages, including civilian and military women, as well as children, the elderly and the wounded in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails and detention centers.