In latest conflicting message about hostages, senior official says Israel wants ‘all of them’ by Sat.

Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter

Israel continues to send conflicting messages about the number of hostages it demands to be released by Saturday.

A senior Israeli official now says that Israel is demanding that “all of them” be released by Hamas.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu and the cabinet are sticking to US President Trump’s message about the release of hostages,” says the official.

“That is, that all of them will go out on Shabbat.”

At the same time, the senior official does not say “all the hostages,” perhaps leaving room for all the hostages slated to be released on Saturday, or all the living hostages to be released in the first phase.

Trump called yesterday for the release of all hostages by midday Saturday, but earlier Israeli statements — including by Netanyahu — this evening after the security cabinet meeting did not call for all hostages to be released. Netanyahu called for “our hostages” to be released, while an Israeli official said nine hostages had to be released “in the coming days.”

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