Netanyahu considers partial release of hostages; family members react

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that he was still “committed” to an Israeli ceasefire and a US-backed hostage release proposal, as he faced backlash from hostage families. Israelis for appearing to backtrack on their support for the proposal the day before.

The proposal, outlined by US President Joe Biden last month, sets out conditions intended to lead to the eventual release of all remaining hostages, in exchange for a permanent ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

But on Sunday, Netanyahu told Israel’s Channel 14 that he was ready to make “a partial agreement” with Hamas to return just some hostages from Gaza, in comments that were at odds with the proposal, which was approved by his own cabinet. war.

He added that Israel will continue fighting in the enclave after the ceasefire. “This does not mean that the war will end, but the war in its current phase will end in Rafah. This is true. We will continue mowing the grass later,” Netanyahu told the right-wing broadcaster in what was his first one-on-one interview with local Israeli media since October 7.

His apparent rejection of the proposed ceasefire and hostage release faced a furious backlash from Israeli politicians and a group representing Israeli hostages and their families, which has become a powerful political force in the country.

The Forum on Hostages and Missing Families called Netanyahu’s comments to Channel 14 “an unprecedented national failure and a failure to achieve the aims of the war.”

Opposition figure Gadi Eisenkot – who resigned from Israel’s war cabinet a week before Netanyahu dissolved it – also criticized Netanyahu, saying “there are soldiers who are fighting right now because their war aim is to return the hostages.”

On Monday (24), US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the US opposes continued military operations in Gaza. “This is just a recipe for continued conflict, continued instability and continued insecurity for Israel,” he said at a news conference.

The Forum for Hostages and Missing Families later released a video showing the kidnapping of three Israelis by Hamas on October 7. The video shows Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Or Levy and Eliya Cohen in the back of a pickup truck, being driven down a tree-lined road in southern Israel by militants wielding assault weapons. “Here are the dogs, here they are,” one of the gunmen can be heard saying.

Goldberg-Polin, a 23-year-old American-Israeli citizen, can be seen with a bloodied face and what appears to be a bone protruding from his left arm – blown up after a grenade was thrown into the bunker where he and several others were hiding from the Hamas armed men.

Goldberg-Polin’s family told Anderson Cooper, from CNN, who agreed to release the video of his son because world leaders “may need a wake-up call.”

“It’s horrible. It’s distressing. It’s a video of their children that no parent wants to see,” Jon Polin said. “It is important that people in the world see the videos, understand what is happening, understand what happened on October 7th and, most particularly, that the leaders of the world see this.”

Hamas released a video of Goldberg-Polin in April, the first evidence that he survived the explosion. In the video, he criticized Netanyahu’s government, as did other Israeli hostages in Hamas propaganda videos. At the time, detained in Gaza for six months, he was almost certainly speaking under duress.

“Every day that passes puts the hostages at greater risk and diminishes our chances of bringing them back safely,” the Forum said in a statement, calling for a deal that brings all hostages home.

‘An important correction’

Netanyahu has made efforts to backtrack on his comments to Channel 14. On Monday, an Israeli source familiar with the matter told CNN that Israel emphasized to Hamas, through mediators Qatar and Egypt, that it is committed to the Israeli ceasefire and the proposal for the release of hostages.

Seeking to further tamp down his explosive comments, Netanyahu on Monday told the Knesset: “We are committed to the Israeli proposal that President Biden welcomed. Our position has not changed.”

“Netanyahu’s words in the Knesset were an important correction. To date, he has not said publicly that he supports the Israeli proposal. Netanyahu’s words move the ball into Hamas’ court. If Hamas says yes, there will be a deal. Now we need to press for a deal with everything we have,” said the Israeli source.

In a brief statement issued after his interview on Sunday, Netanyahu’s office sought to clarify what he said, saying the prime minister “made it clear that we will not leave Gaza until we return all of our 120 hostages, the living and the deceased.”

The release of the video may be aimed at reorienting the minds of Israel’s security cabinet, reminding Netanyahu and other senior officials of the war’s initial goal of returning the hostages, many of whom remain in Gaza nearly nine months after their abduction.

Currently, the number of hostages believed to be dead has risen to 42 with the Israeli military’s announcement that one of its soldiers, Sergeant Major Mhamad El Atrash, 39, was killed on October 7 and that his body is being held. by Hamas. Previously, on June 8, the Prime Minister’s Office said it believes that at least 41 hostages from the October 7 attack are dead, with their bodies being held in the Gaza Strip.

At least five American hostages are believed to have been kept alive and four others are believed to be dead.

More than a million Palestinians were sheltering in Rafah before Israel began its air and ground operation in the southern Gaza city, defying calls from the international community not to proceed. Since then, around 800,000 people have been displaced from Rafah, where conditions have been described by the United Nations food agency as “apocalyptic”.

The city’s border crossing with Egypt – a vital entry point for humanitarian aid – has remained closed since the Israeli military seized it early last month.

And international pressure on Israel’s actions in Gaza has increased since it began its operation in Rafah. Last month, the UN’s top court ordered Israel to immediately suspend its controversial military operation in that country, calling the humanitarian situation “disastrous”.