“Hamas has rejected everything,” Benjamin Netanyahu told a news conference in which he downplayed accusations that his insistence that Israel retain control of a buffer zone along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt is preventing the negotiations from succeeding.
“We are trying to find land on which to start negotiations [mais] they refuse [et disent] that there is nothing to discuss,” Mr Netanyahu added, “so I hope that will change because I want these hostages to be released”
Since the announcement of the discovery of the bodies of six additional hostages by the Israeli military on Sunday, Mr. Netanyahu is under strong external pressure (especially from the United States, a member of the mediation with Qatar and Egypt), but also within the Israeli population to reach an agreement that would allow the release of the hostages still held in Gaza. in exchange for a ceasefire in the fighting that would allow us to move towards a permanent and definitive ceasefire after almost eleven months of war.
According to the Israeli military, the six hostages found on Sunday were shot at the hands of their captors in a tunnel in the Gaza Strip.
Stumbling points
The attack by Hamas commandos in Gaza against Israel on October 7 resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to a tally from official Israeli data. Of the 251 people abducted that day, 97 are still being held in Gaza, 33 of whom have been declared dead by the Israeli military.
Israel's military campaign of revenge on the Gaza Strip has devastated the small Palestinian territory and caused at least 40,819 deaths, according to the Hamas government's Health Ministry for Gaza, which does not detail the number of civilians and fighters killed. According to the UN, most of the dead are women and children.
During his press conference, Netanyahu reiterated his desire for Israel to maintain control of the Philadelphia Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border for as long as it deems necessary to prevent Hamas from rearming after the fighting, and stated that this point of deadlock in negotiations was far from the only one.
According to him, the issue of the number of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel to be released in exchange for each freed hostage or a possible veto by Israel on the release of some of these detainees are part of all that “has not been resolved” at this time.