David Muir Interviews Benjamin Netanyahu

Turn now to the ABC News exclusive tonight, my interview with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just moments after his phone call today with President Biden. Tonight, Israel’s war with Hamas, where does this war stand one month after the Hamas terror attack. The Biden administration pushing for a humanitarian pause, so will there be one? How the prime Minister answered that question. The Israeli military tonight saying its troops have now completely surrounded Gaza City, describing the fighting as, “Close quarters, urban warfare, face-to-face battles.” And the staggering toll the health ministry in Gaza run by Hamas now claiming more than 10,000 Palestinian civilians have been killed. I asked the Prime Minister about those civilian casualties. Will there be a pause here for humanitarian aid as the Biden administration is now pushing for? Also tonight, what about the hostages, including Americans? Do they know where they are? And tonight, Netanyahu making news when I ask what does victory look like? Who governs Gaza after this conflict? My interview with the Israeli Prime Minister.

(01:00)
Mr. Prime Minister, thank you for joining us here. I know you spoke with President Biden just a short time ago. President Biden has repeatedly said that Israel has every right to defend itself, has an obligation to defend its people. We also know what the administration is now saying, calling for a humanitarian pause to help get aid into Gaza and to help minimize the deaths of Palestinian civilians. Will there be a pause?

First of all, let me say that I deeply appreciate, as do the entire people of Israel, President Biden’s and the American government and the American people’s support for Israel with great moral clarity. I think there’s the question of a ceasefire. The president himself has said that a ceasefire would be a surrender to Hamas. It would be a victory for Hamas, and you would no more have it than you would have a ceasefire after the Al-Qaeda bombings of the World Trade Center.

I know the Biden administration has also said, now is not the time for a ceasefire. What they’re proposing is a humanitarian pause. There will be no pause?

Well, there’ll be no general ceasefire in Gaza without the release of our hostages. As far as tactical little pauses, an hour here, an hour there, we’ve had them before. I suppose we’ll check the circumstances in order to enable goods, humanitarian goods to come in or our individual hostages to leave. But I don’t think there’s going to be a general ceasefire. It’s not that I don’t think. I think it will hamper the war effort. It’ll hamper our effort to get our hostages out because the only thing that works on these criminals in Hamas is the military pressure that we’re exerting.

If Hamas agrees to release the hostages, then there would be a pause.

Well, there’d be a ceasefire for that purpose and we’re waiting for that to happen. It hasn’t happened so far.

Do you know where the hostages are? Do you know where the Americans are?

We have some intelligence. I’m not sure it’s wise to share it here with Hamas.

I know you said you’re doing everything you can to minimize civilian casualties. Obviously the world saw the horror in Israel, the 1400 brutally killed in that terror attack. We were on the ground for several days, as you know. But the world has now also seen the toll in Gaza. The health ministry run by Hamas now says 10,000 Palestinian civilians have been killed, 4,000 of them children. I’m not asking about Hamas here. I’m asking about the 10,000 civilians killed. Are you concerned about the number of civilians that we’ve seen lost caught in the middle of this conflict?

I think every civilian loss is a tragedy. Every civilian life lost is a tragedy. We’re fighting an enemy that is particularly brutal. They’re using their civilians as human shields and while we’re asking the Palestinian civilian population to leave the war zone, they’re preventing them at gunpoint. They’re using them as human shields.

I know you have told Palestinian civilians to move to the south. We know that there have been strikes in the South as well. We should just point that out. When you talk about the tactics used by Hamas, the world is aware of those tactics. Are you taking that into account because when you start to see numbers that are difficult to wrap your head around, 10,000 Palestinian civilians, is there a more targeted approach in going after Hamas being explored here to try to minimize the number of Palestinian civilians who are not Hamas, who are not militants, who’ve lost their lives here?

The answer is yes. First of all, I wouldn’t take those numbers at face value. I think we have to check them and there are quite a few, several thousand Palestinian combatants there that is Hamas terrorists that are incorporated in those numbers. It’s a very tough enemy, but we can’t let them have immunity. If we let them have immunity, David, then barbarians win.

You have refused any temporary pause that doesn’t include the return of hostages. You mentioned that right here with me again today. I’m curious what you would say to the families of those hostages who believe that this mounting civilian death toll in Gaza, now at 10,000, is putting their own loved ones, these hostages at greater risk.

Well, we’re taking that into consideration. Believe me, there’s no one who wants to get our hostages back more than us. I think that it’s important to understand that there is no way to defeat terrorists embedded in a civilian population without going as targeted away as you can against the terrorist. But there’ll be, unfortunately, these civilian casualties. Again and again I say it, we’ll do everything in our power to reduce that.

You spoke with President Biden just before you came on the air here to talk with me. Does he agree with you on this? No pause unless hostages or is this a disagreement with President Biden?

We agree on many things. I’ve known Joe Biden for 40 years. He’s a great supporter of Israel and he’s a great friend. It’s trying times for both of us and for the people of Israel and our friends. We understand that, but we have to stand together and I think we stand together.

But there is daylight here on this notion of a humanitarian pause. You don’t agree with the Biden administration on that?

We agree that we have to provide humanitarian assistance. We’re doing it and coordinating it with our American friends and with President Biden. We’ll do whatever we can. We don’t want to give Hamas the opportunity to endanger our soldiers. We saw that until we started the ground action, there was no pressure on them to release hostages. What we see is the minute we started the ground action, there is pressure.

I know Israel prides itself on its intelligence capabilities. We now know the Hamas attack had been planned for months. We saw the training videos. Of course, we saw the thousands of Hamas terrorists swarming into Israel. How did your government miss this?

It’s a very good question because the first task of government is to protect the people, and clearly we didn’t live up to that. We had a big, big setback.

As Prime Minister, do you personally bear any responsibility here?

I’ve said that there are going to be very tough questions that are going to be asked, and I’m going to be among the first to answer them. We’re not going to invade that. The responsibility of a government is to protect the people and clearly that responsibility wasn’t met.

But you know what I’m asking here? Because so many Israeli officials, including the defense minister, the military intelligence chief, the military chief of staff, they’ve all taken some responsibility for Israel being caught off guard. They didn’t say we have to wait for an investigation here. Do you believe that you should take any responsibility?

Of course. That’s not a question. It’s going to be resolved after the war. I think there’ll be time to allocate that.

President Biden has said that it would be a mistake for Israel to occupy Gaza. Who should govern Gaza when this is over?

Those who don’t want to continue the way of Hamas. I think Israel, for an indefinite period, will have the overall security responsibility because we’ve seen what happens when we don’t have it. When we don’t have that security responsibility, what we have is the eruption of Hamas terror on a scale that we couldn’t imagine.

Do you have a warning to Iran, to Hezbollah?

I think they’ve understood that if they enter the war in a significant way, the response will be very, very powerful and I hope they don’t make that mistake.

Mr. Prime Minister, thank you for taking the time for us. I appreciate it.

Thank you, David.

We will have more of my interview with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later tonight on Nightline, and you heard him warn Iran and Hezbollah there. Tonight, the Pentagon revealing a US nuclear powered submarine has arrived in the Middle East. They put out this image of the vessel in the Suez Canal. A US sub in those waters isn’t unusual, but announcing it is, of course, meant as a message of deterrence tonight.