Benjamin Netanyahu is one of the world’s most controversial elected leaders – a patriot to his supporters and a villain to his enemies.

Since Hamas launched its barbaric terrorist attack on October 7 last year, killing perhaps 1,200 people and seizing some 255 hostages in the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust, ‘Bibi’ has faced widespread criticism at home and abroad for the unflinching nature of his response – even as Israel fights an existential battle for its own survival.

Some critics have accused him of committing ‘genocide’ in the Gaza Strip, following the terror group’s claims that 40,000 Palestinians have been killed during the IDF’s operations there.

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Other opponents insist that he is failing to do enough to secure the release of the 101 remaining hostages – while still others argue he is dragging out the war to save his own political skin.

The 74-year-old is currently on trial for bribery and fraud and even has a potential arrest warrant looming over him for ‘war crimes’. Presenting himself as a tough wartime leader, his domestic enemies insist, helps him to deflect and delay such issues. He divides opinion, then – but he is undoubtedly one of the most consequential figures on the planet, leading his country at a time of immense peril.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu says Keir Starmer’s ‘misguided’ new government is ‘sending a horrible message to Hamas’

Now he stands on the brink of outright war on a second front after Mossad, Israel’s famed intelligence agency, apparently planted explosives in pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah in Lebanon, injuring thousands of the Iranian proxy’s militants.

Already experts are concerned about the risk of further escalation – and whether or not Israel will seize the opportunity to invade its northern neighbour, where Hezbollah has killed around 50 Israelis, including women and children, in a relentless series of rocket attacks since October 7, displacing tens of thousands.

It has been one of the most dramatic weeks in the region since last year’s atrocity – yet Netanyahu took the time to answer written questions exclusively for the Daily Mail, in his first British newspaper interview for years.

The Israeli PM has blasted Keir Starmer’s ‘misguided’ new government, accusing it of ‘sending a horrible message to Hamas’ as ‘shameless anti-Semitism’ is on display across the country. Earlier this month, the fledgling Labour administration was accused of pandering to anti-Israel sentiment on its own backbenches after Foreign Secretary David Lammy suspended 30 arms export licences to the Middle East’s only democracy.

This extraordinary move followed Labour’s dropping of Britain’s objections to an International Criminal Court arrest warrant being issued against Netanyahu for such charges as ‘starvation of civilians’, ‘intentionally attacking civilians’ and ‘murder’.

In emphatic terms, Netanyahu told the Mail: ‘After the October 7 Hamas massacre, the previous British government [under Rishi Sunak] was clear in its support. Unfortunately, the current government is sending mixed messages.

‘They say that Israel has the right to defend itself, but they undermine our ability to exercise that right both by reversing Britain’s position on the absurd allegations made by the ICC Prosecutor against Israel and by blocking weapons sales to Israel as we fight against the genocidal terrorist organisation that carried out the October 7 massacre.’

Israeli troops conducting a military operation in the Gaza Strip today

He added: ‘Most recently, the new UK government suspended 30 arms licences to Israel, days after Hamas executed six Israeli hostages, sending a horrible message to Hamas.

‘These misguided decisions will not change Israel’s determination to defeat Hamas [which] savagely murdered 1,200 people on October 7, including 14 British citizens, and took 255 people including five British hostages.’

However, Netanyahu stressed that the war need not drag on for ever. Directly addressing Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, one of the masterminds of October 7, Netanyahu said: ‘Lay down your arms, free the hostages and surrender. That would end the war instantly.’

But as the conflict approaches its one-year anniversary, that scenario seems increasingly unlikely.

Multiple attempts to reach a ceasefire have collapsed and more than 2,000 Israeli soldiers have been killed or injured. And while international protests against Israel started even before the IDF entered Gaza, recent weeks have seen angry demonstrations swell within the Jewish state, although it should be stressed that his party is now the most popular in the country.

Last month, after Hamas murdered six hostages, hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets to demand Netanyahu make a deal to free those still being held. But experts believe that the war is only becoming more entrenched. Only yesterday, in the aftermath of the deadly pager and walkie-talkie explosions, Israel’s defence minister boasted that the conflict had entered a ‘new phase’. Israel’s allies increasingly fear that a wider war could swiftly erupt.

For his part, the PM insists that his primary goal remains to bring the hostages home. ‘I am doing everything possible to free the hostages and win the war,’ he said. ‘I will not rest until that is achieved.’

But critics claim he is prolonging the war to survive politically as he fights corruption charges. In 2019, Netanyahu was charged with bribery, fraud and ‘breach of trust’ for alleged offences in three cases. He is said to have accepted luxury gifts of cigars and champagne and, worse, to have struck ‘backroom deals’ with a newspaper baron and a telecoms boss.

Flames rise up a building in Lebanon amid the explosions across the country today

He has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and insists he is the victim of a ‘witch hunt’ – but the trials have rumbled on. In 2021, he was finally ousted from power, ending his 12-year second stint as PM. (He had previously been elected for three years between 1996-1999.)

Journalists penned his political obituary for a second time – but somehow, the man known as ‘the Magician’ came back. On December 29, 2022, Netanyahu managed to scramble a hardline Right-wing coalition and returned as PM. Within five days, his new administration announced plans to overhaul the judiciary – which his critics insisted was a brazen attempt to influence his own trials.

The measures sparked mass protests – and then, months later, Hamas attacked in the most devastating day for Israel since the Yom Kippur War almost 50 years prior. Asked if he was putting his desire to wriggle out of the charges above freeing the hostages, the Israeli leader hit back: ‘I am not concerned with my future, but with the future of my country,’ he insisted. ‘This is what guides all my decisions. The real obstacle to freeing the hostages is Hamas that inhumanely keeps them in underground dungeons. In Israel, Prime Ministers are not immune to legal actions.’

Referring to a fourth corruption case dropped last year, he added: ‘The legal proceedings in my case have been going on for three years, and they are unravelling. A year ago, the judges urged the prosecution to drop its charge of bribery. In any case, the trial is totally independent of the war. There is no substitute for victory, and I seek to achieve it as soon as possible.’

Asked for his ceasefire conditions, Netanyahu said: ‘We will destroy Hamas’s military and governing capabilities, return the hostages and ensure Gaza does not pose a threat to Israel in the future.’

But what does ‘victory’ actually look like? No comprehensive blueprint has emerged for how the Strip might be governed if and when the terror group is destroyed. Israel has no more desire to occupy Gaza than the Palestinians have for it to do so. Neighbouring Arab countries such as Egypt and Jordan have also refused to commit to running the territory.

‘We do not intend to occupy Gaza,’ Netanyahu stressed to the Mail. ‘After Hamas is destroyed, Gaza will need to be demilitarised and deradicalised and rebuilt by peace-seeking parties.’ Let’s hope so. Every day, war with Hezbollah – a far more sophisticated Iranian proxy than Hamas, and one that has launched almost daily rocket attacks in Israel since October 7 – edges closer. Our interview was conducted shortly before Mossad’s attack on Hezbollah’s communications infrastructure.

Asked whether, in the event diplomacy should fail, he was willing to go to war in Lebanon, Netanyahu answered: ‘Hezbollah’s unprovoked attacks on Israel beginning on October 8 have caused 60,000 Israelis to evacuate their homes along our border with Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon.

An online image appearing to show one of the radio devices after it detonated in Lebanon

A car on fire in Lebanon today, reportedly as the result of an exploding device 

‘Israel has eliminated about 650 Hezbollah terrorists, including their senior military commander, and destroyed thousands of rockets. We do not seek escalation in Lebanon, but are committed to return our citizens safely to their homes. That will be achieved diplomatically or with other means.’

Supporters stress Netanyahu secured the Abraham Accords in 2020, using trade partnerships to normalise relations with the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco. It was a milestone in the peace process, but October 7 changed everything. Now Israel appears one miscalculation away from direct war not only with Iran’s proxies – but the theocracy itself.

Following alarming reports last week that Tehran may have been passed nuclear secrets by Russia, the Israeli PM told us it is high time that Britain woke up to the menace of the mullahs.

‘For the past 30 years I have warned the world about the threat posed by Iran, and Israel has acted to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons,’ he said. ‘Our actions delayed a nuclear Iran by about a decade, but the jury is still out on all of us [sic]. Today, Iran is closer to becoming a nuclear power. This would threaten Israel, Britain and the entire world. Today, more and more countries understand that.

‘What are required are crippling sanctions and a credible military threat to prevent Iran from completing its pursuit of nuclear weapons. What is also needed is a common defence against its aggression in the Middle East.

‘I was encouraged by the international coalition that helped ward off Iran’s rocketing of Israel in April, and that same coalition is in place now. I appreciate the fact that this policy is continued by the present British government.’

With US elections approaching, it has been suggested that Netanyahu is privately rooting for Donald Trump to come to his aid, not least after the Democrat candidate, Kamala Harris, vowed that she ‘will not be silent’ about alleged atrocities in Gaza.

‘As in any democracy, it is for the American people to decide whom they elect as President,’ Netanyahu insisted. ‘We will continue to work with whoever they elect to further the common values and interests shared by the American and Israeli peoples. These are strong ties that are maintained through changing governments in Israel and America.’

Meanwhile, the accidental killing of three British aid workers by the IDF in April provoked shock and outrage across the UK.

Netanyahu’s office told the Mail that the officers responsible have since been reprimanded. It added that his forces ‘owe it to the victims’ to do everything they can to prevent such tragedies.

But as the death toll continues to mount in Gaza and beyond, Israel – and its embattled leader – look increasingly isolated.

As the world holds its breath again, it is surely to be hoped that the Magician has a few final tricks up his sleeve: to end the war quickly, to secure the release of the hostages – and to prevent the region from becoming engulfed in a conflict that could jeopardise the security of the world.