\n

Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday made a surprise visit to the country\u2019s troops in Rafah, southern Gaza.<\/p>\n

During the visit, Netanyahu sounded a tone of triumph in the war against Hamas.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu noted the need for Israel to keep control of the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n

The PM\u2019s office announced Netanyahu\u2019s visit to Rafah after Israel\u2019s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, visited Jerusalem\u2019s most sensitive holy site.<\/p>\n

There has been talks over a cease-fire in the 9-month-old Israel-Hamas war.<\/p>\n

According to the statement, the Israeli PM said his talks with troops and commanders had made him \u201cstronger in the understanding that our control of the Philadelphi corridor and of the Rafah crossing are essential going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Netanyahu also said Israel demands \u201ca maximum number of hostages\u201d to be released in the first phase.<\/p>\n

This is likely to fuel Hamas\u2019 suspicions he aims to get out as many hostages as possible and then resume fighting.<\/p>\n

Hamas war: Israeli PM Netanyahu makes surprise visit to Gaza<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday made a surprise visit to the country\u2019s troops in Rafah, southern Gaza. During…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42580,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2563,14863,21436,13156,15],"tags":[1424,5481,1566,415,13157,180,16876,3734,1422],"class_list":["post-42579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gaza","category-hamas-war","category-israeli-pm","category-netanyahu","category-news","tag-gaza","tag-hamas","tag-israeli","tag-makes","tag-netanyahu","tag-news","tag-surprise","tag-visit","tag-war"],"yoast_head":"\n