Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied Saturday that US President Donald Trump had strong-armed him into agreeing to the current ceasefire and hostage release deal, and stressed that the war in Gaza “will end for good when the terms of the agreement that were accepted are implemented.”

“We are insisting that the agreement be implemented in its entirety,” including the return of all the dead hostages and Hamas’s disarmament, he said in an appearance on the staunchly pro-Netanyahu Channel 14.

He also confirmed that he would be running again for office in the next elections, currently scheduled for October 2026, and said he was confident that he would win. Opinion polls other than those conducted by Channel 14 have consistently predicted that Netanyahu’s current bloc of right-wing and religious parties would not win a Knesset majority, but the anti-Netanyahu opposition bloc is just short of a majority in many recent polls, with two Arab parties holding the balance.

The premier has given dozens of interviews to foreign media outlets and podcasts since the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led onslaught that started the war. He has given few interviews to Israeli media outlets, almost all of which have been with Channel 14.

Saturday’s appearance covered a range of topics, from his relationship with the current US administration and its predecessor to the Gaza war and Iran — but largely skipped issues less comfortable to Netanyahu such as the failures that led to the October 7 attack, or right-wing criticisms of the current ceasefire deal.

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