Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will hold a meeting by telephone with Defense Minister Israel Katz and other top defense officials after the Houthis in Yemen struck Ben Gurion Airport with a ballistic missile, says an Israeli official.
The 3 p.m. meeting will examine potential responses, including a direct Israeli strike on Houthi assets in Yemen.
At 7 p.m., Netanyahu will convene his security cabinet in person to discuss the expansion of the military campaign in Gaza, fighting in Syria, the Houthi attack, and more.
Israel has no hope that Hamas will accept Israel’s proposals for a ceasefire-hostage release deal without significantly enhanced military pressure, an Israeli source tells The Times of Israel.
Israel is increasing that pressure in the hopes of getting a ceasefire in place in time for US President Donald Trump’s Middle East trip, which begins on May 13.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is also focusing more in his rhetoric on the goal of destroying Hamas, and less on the goal of a hostage release, as part of that pressure campaign, says the source. However, the goals of the war have not changed, the source argues.
Netanyahu on Thursday angered hostages’ families when he said that while bringing back hostages was “very important,” the “supreme goal” of the war was victory.
The IDF later appeared to contradict Netanyahu and said bringing back the hostages was the “supreme mission.”
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