As Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said recently, this is indeed a “historic turning point” and defining times for Israel. Your thoughts…

Yes, indeed, that it is a very important moment in our history because we have withstood, we have managed to, actually not only survive, but also to succeed in giving a decisive answer to the attack that happened to us on the 7th of October. Not just what Hamas did to us, which was atrocious but in the context of what the entire Iranian proxies have tried to do against Israel. So, we have managed to remove from Israel a very significant threat of hundreds of thousands of rockets that were coming from Hezbollah, capabilities that were being built in Syria, were being built in Iran against us. And, the fact that we have succeeded in this military operation, that there’s no longer a military machine of Hamas that is capable of threatening all the centers of population in Israel. The fact that Hezbollah is no longer a threat to northern Israel in a significant way, and that Iran got hit very severely in very strategic points of their missile programme, is very significant because when those enemies that have sworn to destroy us are debilitated, this gives peace and stability a chance. We have a window of opportunity now, a combination of the Israeli military victories and the coming of the Trump administration to do many good things for the region.

How is the situation in Gaza, right now?

We have managed to bring back most of our hostages. We are left now with about 69 hostages. Of which about half of them are dead. We have managed to bring almost 190 hostages back and we are trying to be persistent on the goal that our cabinet has determined. That means that we have to bring back all our hostages and also make sure that Hamas is destroyed and that it can no longer constitute a military threat, nor be the government in Gaza. Because we know that if Hamas comes back to become the government in Gaza, the time frame until we will have another 7th of October will shorten and therefore we are very stubborn on achieving both goals - the hostages and destroying Hamas’ capability to attack us removes them from power.

What is your take on US President Donald Trump’s offer to relocate people from Gaza?

There is an anomaly when it comes to Gaza. You know, when you look at conflicts in the region and outside the region, you can see very clearly, for example when the Ukraine, the Russia-Ukraine war started, five million Ukrainians left Ukraine. When there was a civil war in Syria, eight million Syrians left Syria. So, in any conflict zone, people are being allowed to go to refuge, to go to a quiet place until things are over, until the war is over, until things get through a construct and then they come back. The only place in the world in which it is not allowed, apparently, is the Gaza Strip. So the (US) President was saying something that is very natural. We can temporarily relocate Gazans to go to a safe haven until things get better in Gaza. This is not something that is going to happen by force, it is something based on a voluntary basis. So, if there are countries that are ready to accept Palestinians that want to take refuge, then we can do it.

How different is the Trump administration from the Biden regime?

We are optimistic because we saw what the first Trump administration did to the region. We reached the Abraham Accords. And Israel got very important achievements from that administration that have to do with the American recognition of Jerusalem, our capital, the moving of the American Embassy to Jerusalem, the recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights and many other things. So, we have a hope that with this Trump administration, we can achieve more. We always had good relations with any American administration and also with the Biden administration. But, we had some gaps with them when it comes to the management of our struggle, to defend ourselves from the Hamas attack. If you remember, the administration tried to make us refrain from doing the Rafah operation or was withholding some weapons that we needed for the war. So these are no longer there. These limitations are no longer there. And, we’ve heard very clearly from President Trump himself that he’s going to back Israel in whatever decisions Israel has to make to defend itself. That’s very encouraging.

US President Donald Trump has expressed concerns over the USAID role and its fundings that could have been used for toppling governments...

That’s an American decision to make, in which way America wants to be involved in the world. That’s a decision that America will have to make. We are not interfering in that. I haven’t seen the USAID toppling governments. What we have seen is that sometimes money is being used by different agencies for different purposes. So the question is whether the administration wants to continue to use money in that way or to alter the ways in which they operate. That’s a completely, independent decision that the United States will have to make. And we’ve been working in the USA with the USA in the past, especially in coordinating assistance to the Palestinians and whenever the Americans want to give assistance to the Palestinian people, we would coordinate that whether it comes from USAID, State Department or any other American agency.