Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the third phase of the war on Gaza will take an additional half a year.

This came according to what was reported by the Israeli Public Broadcasting Authority (“Kan 11”), today, Tuesday, which indicated that Netanyahu had said this, during the “closed part” of the government session that was held this week, in which he pointed out that the Israeli army would need To half a year, to end the third phase of the war, which “has already begun in the northern Gaza Strip.”

Netanyahu told his ministers: “As we said previously, the air part would last three weeks, and so it was, and as we said, the second part of the broad maneuver would last three months, and so it was.”

Netanyahu added: “Thus we say that the third part of consolidating control, the cleansing, will continue for half a year.”

Israeli official: Negotiations on a prisoner exchange deal “are still ongoing”

In a related context, the Israeli Broadcasting Authority reported, citing an unnamed Israeli official, that negotiations on reaching a prisoner exchange deal “are still ongoing, and we have not received a negative response,” after the Associated Press reported in a report today, That Hamas has rejected the Israeli proposal to release the detainees, in exchange for a two-month ceasefire, and “allowing” senior Hamas leaders in Gaza to leave the Strip for other countries.

Earlier today, the American Associated Press quoted a senior Israeli official as saying that Hamas insists on its refusal to release more Israeli prisoners in Gaza, until Israel ends its ongoing war on Gaza for 109 days and withdraws its forces from the Strip.

The official said that Egypt and Qatar, which are playing a mediating role with American support between the Hamas movement and the Israeli occupation authorities, are working to develop a multi-stage proposal to try to bridge the gaps between the two sides. Note that the Israeli side refuses to discuss offers that include a commitment to stop the war on Gaza, which is required by Hamas.

Netanyahu had said, in a meeting held yesterday, Monday, with a group of representatives of the families of detainees in Gaza, that Israel had presented an initiative to the mediators, the details of which were not revealed, in an attempt to release the detainees, stressing that Israel refuses to discuss proposals that include a commitment to end the war on Gaza.