On the eve of the second anniversary of the October 7 massacre, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was interviewed for a podcast by Jewish-American publicist Ben Shapiro and said that "we are close to ending the war - but not there yet." Netanyahu confused the number of hostages when he said that "what started in Gaza will end in Gaza - with the release of our 46 hostages and the end of Hamas's terrorist rule" - although there are 48 hostages held by the terrorist organization in Gaza. He added that 20 of the hostages are alive, which is the officially known number in Israel. According to him, "Hamas has not yet been destroyed, but we will get there. It's impossible to 'finish' and leave Hamas in power, with rockets aimed at us."