In swipe at protests, Netanyahu says ‘most Israelis’ not swayed by Hamas propaganda
Smotrich says PM’s conditions for deal ‘not good,’ even if Israel stays on Philadelphi; Hamas said to demand life-term murderers in return for civilians, not just for soldiers
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to suggest Sunday that protesters demanding a ceasefire with Hamas to get hostages out of Gaza were “falling for the trap” laid by the terror group.
Speaking at the weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu cited an unverified Friday report by German tabloid Bild, which said a document purportedly signed by Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar urged “psychological pressure” on hostage families as a way to step up public pressure on the government to negotiate while Hamas rearms.
The reported document shows Hamas wants to “tear us apart from the inside and to continue the war until further notice,” said Netanyahu. “The vast majority of Israeli citizens aren’t falling for this trap.”
Tens of thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets to urge a hostage deal in the past week, after the IDF announced on September 1 that it had recovered six recently slain hostages from Gaza.
Protesters accuse Netanyahu of causing the hostages’ deaths by insisting any hostage deal see Israel control the Philadelphi Corridor separating Gaza from Egypt. The demand has reportedly stalled negotiations, and is absent from Israel’s May 27 proposal, on which the talks have been based.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told Channel 12 on Saturday that he would continue opposing the deal envisioned by Netanyahu, even if it included Israeli control of Philadelphi.
Meanwhile, citing a White House official, the Washington Post reported Sunday that Hamas introduced its own “poison pill” into the talks in the past week, demanding the release of Palestinian terrorists serving life sentences in Israel in return for hostages who are civilians, not just IDF soldiers.
Referring to the Bild report that Hamas aims to exploit domestic tensions in Israel, Netanyahu said: “When we stand together, our enemies cannot overcome us, so their main goal is to divide us, to sow division within us.”
“Most Israelis,” Netanyahu continued, are committed to Israel’s war aims — “to eliminate Hamas, to return all our hostages, to ensure that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel and to safely return our residents in the north and south to their homes.”
Netanyahu recently added the last goal, after opposition leaders and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant criticized its absence from the government’s official war aims.
Speaking to Channel 12, Smotrich said Netanyahu’s conditions for a deal — including the demand Israel remain in Philadelphi — would fail the war aims.
“This deal is not good for Israel. It won’t be good for security and it won’t return the hostages,” Smotrich said, arguing that it would release some hostages while sentencing the rest to death.
The finance minister did not definitively say he would bolt the government if the deal advances, but said Netanyahu “knows my position extremely well.”
“My red lines are not only on Philadelphi,” he said. According to Smotrich, withdrawing from the Netzarim Corridor, which stretches across Gaza’s center, “would also be terrible.”
The war “has to end with the absolute destruction of Hamas,” said Smotrich, asserting that the goals of returning all the hostages and vanquishing the terror group were “not contradictory.”
Smotrich said he seeks a “surrender deal where Hamas gives up its weapons [and] is booted from Gaza,” enabling the Strip’s rehabilitation and demilitarization. The finance minister has previously said he supports a return to full Israeli control of Gaza and the return of Jewish settlements there.
According to Smotrich, military pressure is the only way to deal with Hamas. “If, from the first day, Israel had said no negotiations, we would have won and got back the hostages,” he said.
“No way should returning the hostages endanger the existence of Israel,” said Smotrich, arguing against the release of Palestinian security prisoners as part of a hostage deal.
“I very much want the hostages back, but I do not want collective suicide,” said Smotrich, rejecting the release of “hundreds of murderers who will go back to killing Jews.”
The Washington Post on Sunday cited a White House official as saying that Hamas has made the truce-hostage negotiations all the more difficult by demanding that terrorists serving life sentences be released for civilian hostages in the deal’s first stage, a six-week ceasefire.
Until now, the formula was that hardened terrorists would only be released for kidnapped IDF soldiers, including 150 life-term murderers to be released from Israeli jails during the first phase in return for the five female surveillance soldiers held hostage.
Citing “officials involved in the details” of the talks, Kan News reported Sunday that Washington is holding up presenting its new formula for a deal because of the new Hamas demand — which was made Friday, according to Kan.
The public broadcaster cited a Palestinian source as saying Hamas’s demand was not new. However, an unsourced Channel 12 report said Thursday that Hamas was demanding an increase in the number of life-term murderers to be released in return for the five female soldiers.
It is believed that 97 hostages abducted during Hamas’s October 7 onslaught remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 33 confirmed dead by the IDF.
The shock assault saw thousands of terrorists storm southern Israel to kill nearly 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.
Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 37 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.
