"I would like to refer to trending publications in the media, publications that cause damage to the negotiations for the release of the abductees, and also to unnecessary suffering for the families of the abductees who are going through a nightmare and my heart is strong.

Contrary to these publications, it is Hamas that is preventing the release of our abductees. We are working in every possible way to free the abductees. This is in the forefront of our minds.

Israel was and still is ready to make a truce in the fighting to free our abductees. This is what we did when we released 124 hostages, and returned to fight - and this is what we are ready to do today.

In the last few weeks we have been working around the clock to forge an agreement that will return the abductees. And again, completely contrary to the publications, in order to achieve this goal, they gave the negotiating team a very broad mandate to promote the release. We did this out of our deep duty to the abductees, and to put an end to the terrible suffering of the families.

Throughout the negotiations, Israel demonstrated a willingness to go a long way. A long way that was described by US Secretary of State Lincoln and others as "extraordinarily generous".

But while Israel showed this willingness, Hamas remained entrenched in its extreme positions, primarily the demand to withdraw all our forces from the Strip, end the war, and leave Hamas intact.

The State of Israel cannot accept this. We are not ready to accept a situation in which the Hamas battalions come out of their bunkers, take control of Gaza again, rebuild their military infrastructure, and return to threatening the citizens of Israel in the surrounding settlements, in the cities of the south, in all parts of the country.

In this case, the Sabbath next October is only a matter of time. Hamas will be able to fulfill its promise to carry out the massacres, the rapes and the kidnappings over and over again.

Is this why heroes and heroines fell? Did we pay unbearably heavy prices for this?
The answer is - no!

Surrendering to the demands of Hamas would be a terrible defeat for the State of Israel.
It will be a huge victory for Hamas, for Iran, for the entire axis of evil.
It will project a terrible weakness - both to our friends and to our enemy.
And this weakness will only bring the next war closer, and it will push the next peace agreement further away. Because alliances are not made with the weak and defeated, alliances are made with the strong and victorious.

Therefore, Israel will not agree to Hamas's demands, which mean surrender, and will continue the fighting until all its goals are achieved."