Hostages’ families fume as meeting on Gaza delayed so cabinet can vote on Bar’s ouster
Relatives of captives say PM, focused on firing Shin Bet chief, is ignoring their demands for ‘urgent’ meeting, as renewed fighting sparks fear for captives’ lives
Relatives of hostages held in Gaza said Thursday they were “fuming” over reports that the government has delayed a planned meeting on the Gaza war in order to discuss the firing of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar.
In a harshly worded statement issued by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the relatives accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet of ignoring them and endangering their loved ones.
According to the families, the security cabinet was supposed to convene Thursday evening “to discuss the fate of [the hostages] who are currently at risk of death and disappearance in Hamas’s Gaza tunnels.”
“The families demanded at the start of the week, and throughout all the past months, an urgent meeting with the prime minister and cabinet,” the statement reads. “Not a peep and not an answer.”
In response, the Prime Minister’s Office noted that Netanyahu met with the Forum on January 14, “and holds meetings with hostage families and returnees. In addition, hostage coordinator Gal Hirsch meets with the Forum on a frequent basis,” most recently on February 24, in addition to day-to-day conversations with the families.
Netanyahu’s office announced Thursday that it would hold a vote on firing Bar at 9:30 p.m., defying the attorney general, who has maintained that such a move contravenes protocol.
According to Hebrew media reports, the meeting on Gaza initially slated for Thursday night will be pushed off until Saturday evening.
The reported delay would come despite Israel having resumed fighting by ground and air against the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday.
The Israeli military said it launched ground operations along the coast of the far north of the Gaza Strip, close to Beit Lahiya, early Thursday morning, and continued to carry out dozens of airstrikes.
Also on Thursday, Hamas fired three long-range missiles at Israel, the group’s first attack on central Israel since October 7, 2024, the one-year anniversary of the invasion that started the war. The attack from Gaza came hours after a missile attack by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Fighting in Gaza, and Houthi attacks on Israel, had been stopped for roughly two months, following the start of the implementation of a hostage-ceasefire deal in Gaza in January. Israel renewed its Gaza offensive early Tuesday morning, citing Hamas’s “repeated refusal” to free more Israeli hostages.
“From now on, negotiations will be conducted only under fire,” Netanyahu said in a televised address on Tuesday evening.
A Hamas official told Reuters on Thursday that mediators have stepped up their efforts to halt renewed fighting in Gaza, but added that “no breakthrough has yet been made.”
While the Trump administration has expressed support for Israel’s renewed military campaign, the State Department said Wednesday that the bridge proposal submitted by US special envoy to the Mideast Steve Witkoff last week to extend phase one of the ceasefire remains on the table.
“The proposal is compelling. The Israelis were advised about it and informed beforehand. Hamas gave a totally unacceptable response. The opportunity is still there, but it’s closing fast,” a State Department spokesperson said in a statement to The Times of Israel.
The proposal would see the “release of five live hostages, including American Edan Alexander. It would also see the release of a substantial number of Palestinians held in Israeli jails,” the US statement added.
Witkoff submitted the bridge proposal last week, effectively accepting Israel’s refusal to enter phase two of the deal, which was supposed to begin on March 2 and see a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and a permanent end to the war in exchange for the return of the remaining living hostages.
Witkoff said on Sunday that Hamas’s response to the proposal was a “nonstarter,” as the terror group insists on sticking to the original terms of the deal signed in January.
The State Department spokesperson said, “The pillars of [the US] approach remain resolute: stand with Israel, stand for peace. President Trump has made clear the consequences of what will happen if Hamas walks away. I’ll leave it at that.”
“Hamas bears total responsibility for the war, and for the resumption of hostilities. Every death would have been avoided had Hamas accepted the ‘bridge’ proposal that [special envoy] Witkoff offered last Wednesday,” the spokesperson adds.
Freed hostages and their families, as well as the loved ones of those slain or still captive in the Strip, have spoken out against the resumption of the war, arguing that military pressure puts the remaining hostages in grave danger.
On Thursday, hostage families protested at the Yehudit Bridge in Tel Aviv, chanting, “The government is executing the hostages. End the war, fulfill the deal!” according to the Ynet news site.
Terror groups in Gaza are still holding 24 hostages presumed alive as well as the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the Israel Defense Forces.
All but one, the body of a soldier killed in 2014, were abducted from Israel during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel, when some 5,000 terrorists killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, amid acts of brutality and sexual assault, starting the ongoing war.
Hamas released 30 living hostages and the bodies of eight slain Israeli captives during the ceasefire that began in January.
In exchange, Israel freed some 2,000 jailed Palestinian terrorists, security prisoners, and Gazan terror suspects detained during the war.
Agencies contributed to this report.
