Netanyahu makes rare visit to Gaza, offers $5 million for hostage release help

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the country's army has destroyed the military capacity of the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

In Short

• Benjamin Netanyahu vows to hunt down those harming hostages
• Pledges $5 million reward for each hostage's safe return from Gaza
• 1O1 Israeli hostages still believed to be in the Palestinian enclave

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a rare visit to Palestine's Gaza on Tuesday, where the Israeli military is engaged in a bloody war with Hamas militants. Netanyahu has said that his country's army has destroyed the military capacity of the Palestinian group, and asserted that it will no longer rule the enclave.

"Hamas will not rule Gaza. Whoever dares to harm our hostages - blood on his head. We will chase you, and we will get you," he was seen saying in a video.

Netanyahu stressed that efforts to locate the 101 hostages still believed to be in Gaza had not ceased, and announced $5 million (Approximately Rs 37.5 crore) reward for each hostage's safe return.

"Anyone who dares to harm our hostages will have blood on their head. We will hunt you down and get you. Whoever brings us a hostage will find a safe way, he and his family, to get out," he said.

"Choose, the choice is yours, but the result will be the same. We'll get them all back," the Israeli Prime Minister added.

On Monday, Netanyahu, at the Israeli parliament, said that Israel's air attack on Iran last month hit an element of Tehran's nuclear programme while degrading its defence and missile production capabilities.

"It's not a secret. There is a specific component in their nuclear programme that was hit in this attack," he said.

He did not specify the component but emphasised that Iran’s path to acquiring a nuclear weapon remains unimpeded.

On October 26, Israeli fighter jets conducted three waves of strikes against Iranian military targets, weeks after Iran launched approximately 200 ballistic missiles at Israel. Regarding the earlier strike in Israel, he noted it had a more limited scope, eliminating one of four Russian-supplied S-300 surface-to-air missile defence batteries stationed around Tehran, the Iranian capital.