STORY: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described as “excellent” and “historic” a visit to the United States, where he spoke at the United Nations headquarters in New York and held a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C.

In a video post released on his Telegram channel on Monday (September 29), he said “instead of Hamas isolating us, we turned things around and isolated Hamas”.

Netanyahu has backed Trump’s peace proposal to end a nearly two-year-old war in Gaza, but questions loom over whether Hamas would accept the plan.

Asked by a reporter about agreeing to a Palestinian state, Netanyahu said “absolutely not”, adding that Trump had also criticised the recognition of statehood as a prize for Hamas.

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VIDEO SHOWS: SOUNDBITES FROM ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER, BENJAMIN NETANYAHU

EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: TRANSLATION UPDATED AND VERIFIED; NO MAJOR DISCREPANCIES IN PREVIOUS TRANSLATION.

RESENDING WITH COMPLETE SCRIPT

SHOWS: UNIDENTIFIED LOCATION (RELEASED SEPTEMBER 29, 2025) (BENJAMIN NETANYAHU VIA TELEGRAM - No resales / No archive / Must on-screen courtesy "Benjamin Netanyahu via Telegram") (ORIGINALLY SHOT IN PORTRAIT) (APPROXIMATE TRANSLATION, COMPLETE TRANSLATION TO FOLLOW)

1. (SOUNDBITE) (Hebrew) ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER, BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, SAYING:

REPORTER ASKING: "Prime Minister, how do you summarise the visit?"

NETANYAHU: "It was an excellent visit. Both the beginning at the UN and the end in Washington. This is my fourth visit to Washington. When President Trump was elected. This is a historic visit. Instead of Hamas isolating us, we turned things around and isolated Hamas. Now the whole world, including the Arab world and the Muslim world are putting pressure on Hamas to accept the conditions we set together with President Trump, to release all our hostages, both the living and the dead. When the IDF remains in most of the Strip, who would believe that? They keep saying, 'You must accept Hamas’ conditions. Take them all out. The IDF needs to get out and Hamas can recover and can even rehabilitate the strip' by no means. It’s not happening. On the contrary. And President Trump added that if Hamas will refuse, he will give all the backing to Israel. Complete the military operation to eliminate Hamas. And so I think from every side it was an excellent visit."

REPORTER ASKING: "Prime Minister, there is a question being asked: Did you agree to a Palestinian state?"

NETANYAHU: "Absolutely not. It is not written in the agreement either, but one thing, we said we would resist in force to a Palestinian state. President Trump also said what he said that he understands it. He also said at the UN, that it would be a huge reward to terrorism and a danger to the state of Israel. And of course we won’t accept it."

REPORTER ASKING:

"thank you very much Prime Minister"