After IDF recovers 6 bodies, PM blames Hamas for failure to reach hostage deal
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Several hours after the IDF announced that it had recovered the bodies of six hostages from a Hamas tunnel in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu releases a video statement saying that his government is committed to a ceasefire deal and laying the blame for the failure to reach an agreement on the terrorist group.
“This is a difficult day. The heart of the entire people is torn. Along with all the citizens of Israel, I was shocked to the depths of my soul by the terrible coldblooded murder of six of our hostages,” Netanyahu says, and names the six: Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alex Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Ori Danino.
He expresses his “deep appreciation” for the IDF and Shin Bet security service fighters “who risk their lives for the return of our sons and daughters.”
“Together with the entire people, my wife and I share the terrible grief of the families; we all mourn together with them,” he says.
“I say to the Hamas terrorists who murdered our abductees and I say to their leaders — you have forfeited your lives. We will not rest and we will not be silent. We will pursue you, we will catch up with you and we will settle accounts with you,” Netanyahu vows.
“We are fighting on all fronts against a cruel enemy who wants to murder us all. Just this morning it murdered three policemen in Hebron. My wife and I send our heartfelt condolences to their families. We saw the unimaginable cruelty of the Hamas killers on October 7, and we saw it again in the tunnels under Rafah. The fact that Hamas continues to commit atrocities like the ones it committed on October 7 requires us to do everything so that it cannot commit these atrocities again,” the prime minister continues.
“Our efforts to free the hostages continue all the time,” he says.
“Since December, Hamas refuses to conduct real negotiations. Three months ago, on May 27, Israel agreed to a hostage release deal with the full backing of the United States. Hamas refused. Even after the United States updated the outline of the deal on August 16, we agreed, and Hamas again refused,” Netanyahu states, adding that even now, “while Israel is conducting intensive negotiations with the mediators in a supreme effort to reach a deal, Hamas continues to firmly refuse any offer.”
“Worse than that, at that very moment [of the ongoing negotiations] it murdered six of our hostages,” he continues, arguing that “he who murders hostages does not want a deal.”
Despite this, “the Israeli government is committed, and I am personally committed, to continue pursuing a deal that will return all of our hostages and guarantee our security and existence,” Netanyahu declares.
A spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office did not immediately respond when asked why Netanyahu took several hours to release a statement on the matter and why he chose to issue it via prerecorded video rather than speaking live to the public.
Amid public comments by President Herzog and numerous other Israeli politicians — as well as by US President Joe Biden and US vice president and presidential candidate Kamala Harris — Netanyahu remained silent for hours after the IDF’s announcement this morning, prompting criticism from hostage families and the political opposition.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum this morning stated that the hostages’ deaths are the “direct result” of Netanyahu’s “torpedoing” of proposed hostage deals and his demand that the IDF maintain its presence in the Philadelphi Corridor.
According to unnamed security sources who spoke with Army Radio, three of the murdered hostages whose bodies were recovered in the Gaza Strip were on the “humanitarian” list of captives and were meant to be released in the first stage of a proposed hostage deal.
