Ahead of EU meeting, FM Katz says priority is getting hostages back

By Lazar Berman

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22 January 2024, 1:19 pm

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Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter

Foreign Minister Israel Katz holds up a paper photo of hostages kidnapped during the Oct. 7 Hamas cross-border attack in Israel, as he arrives for a meeting of EU foreign ministers at the European Council building in Brussels, January 22, 2024. (Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

Before his meeting with his European Union counterparts, Foreign Minister Israel Katz tells gathered reporters he is in Brussels to discuss two issues — “to bring back our hostages,” and to achieve support for Israel “dismantling the Hamas terrorist organization.”

Katz holds up photos of one-year-old Kfir Bibas, and of Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Daniela Gilboa and Agam Berger, four young women whose bloodied faces Hamas photographed shortly after kidnapping them on October 7.

“It’s urgency, it’s very important to do it very soon and to bring them back,” he says.

Katz ignores shouted questions about the possibility of a two-state solution.